





LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 


PRINCETON, N. J. 


BX 9211 .S34 V36 1924 

Van Meter, Anna Hunter. 

History of the First 
Presbyterian Church, Salem 














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THE HISTORY 


of the 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
SALEM, NEW JERSEY 


Between the Years 1821 and 1921 
with some antecedent facts about 
earlier churches in Salem 
County and elsewhere 


By / 
Anna Hunter Van Meter 


SUNBEAM PUBLISHING CO. 
SALEM, N, J. 
1924 





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CONTENTS 


PAGES 
Dedications—Family—Church 1.0.0... 5 and 7 
BEL OMAD ICAL Naomerer ance rice strtet ston dures: ot vets 9 
POUL CTIMAl rOOTAIIN Mei uP Aur esis tec entie ate Goewss 16 


History of the First Presbyterian Church, 
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Saturday Afternoon and Night in Salem, H. V. C. 78 


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To the memory of Dr. and Mrs. Robert Hunter 
Van Meter; of their three daughters, Miss Emma Van 
Meter, the earliest historian of the First Presbyterian 
Church, Salem, N. J.. Mrs. Mary Van Meter Pease and 
Mrs. Harriet Van Meter Cone; of their five sons, 
James, Robert, Edward (who married Miss Caroline 
Whitaker), Mason and Josiah Van Meter; of their 
three grandsons, Alvin Robert Pease, Norris Hunter 
Cone and Charles Kirtland Cone, this volume is pub- 
lished by the two survivors of their three granddaugh- 
ters, Miss Mary Caroline Van Meter, Miss Harriet 
Le Fevre Van Meter and Miss Anna Hunter Van 
Meter. 


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DEDICATION 





Across the Past, 

We stretch a hand, 
To the dear Spirit Band. 
O, hearts of gold, 
E’er may it last 
What you dared to do, 

With numbers few 
In the Century Old. 


Anna Hunter Van Meter. 





BIOGRAPHICAL 


Miss Anna Hunter Van Meter, the third 
daughter and youngest child of Edward and Caroline 
(Whitaker) Van Meter, was born in Salem, Salem 
County, New Jersey, January 18th, 1851. After a 
preparation in the private schools of her native city, 
she graduated, in 1869, from Ivy Hall Seminary, 
Bridgeton, N. J., under the principalship of Mrs. Mar- 
garetta C. Sheppard. Special studies in art and the 
languages were continued. 

Her father was a lawyer and a prominent business 
man of Salem, a son of Robert Hunter Van Meter, M. 
D., (a surgeon in the War of 1812), who has the honor 
of being the first resident Presbyterian in Salem and a 
founder of the First Presbyterian Church here. Her 
mother was a daughter of Isaac Whitaker, Esq., of 
Deerfield, Cumberland County, N. J., a civil magis- 
trate, lay judge, Major of the Militia, etc. He was a 
classmate and friend of Captain James Lawrence of 
the Chesapeake, whose dying words “Don’t give up 
the ship,” have been so often quoted. 


All of her ancestors were colonial, large landown- 
ers and settlers in what was then Salem County. (Cum- 
berland County was not set off from the County of Sa- 
lem until January 19th, 1747-8.) Among them was 
Richard Whitaker, of a family distinguished in Eng- 
lish history as early as the fourteenth century. He came 
from England to Salem in 1675, with John Fenwick, 
and was one of his Council of Proprietors. Also, Isaac 
Van Meter, of a family of religious and literary repute 
for centuries in Holland, who came from the State of 
New York to what is now Upper Pittsgrove Township 


10 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


in Salem County about 1714; a pioneer settler and a 
leader in the establishment of the Pittsgrove Presby- 
terian Church. French Huguenot and Irish Protestant 
blood mingled with the English and Dutch of her for- 
bears; so that she represented what is supposed to be a 
typical American. 


Baptized in infancy, professing her faith in 1869, 
she was in active connection with the Presbyterian 
Church all her life, the Treasurer of the Sabbath 
School for twenty years from 1886 in addition to the 
spiritual exercise as a teacher of girls in their early 
womanhood. Finally, a member of the Home Class 
Department as the climax. In youth her sympathy was 
awakened for missions. She gave to the Women’s So- 
cieties for Foreign Missions of New York and Phila- 
delphia until 1872 when an auxiliary was started in the 
Salem Church. She began to collect money for it, the 
Secretary from 1883 to 1907 when she became the 
President and remained in the chair as an intelligent, 
consecrated leader for service until death. The author 
of the ambitious annals of the faithful foreign mission- 
ary society which made the years greater and as her 
face glowed with ideas for the fiftieth anniversary in 
1922, the membership was affectionately guided to such 
celebration. A Vice President of the West Jersey 
Presbyterial Home Missionary Society from 1888. In 
the same year she was made a life member, by a friend, 
of the ‘“Woman’s Union Missionary Society of America © 
for Heathen Lands.” A Life Member of the Woman’s 
Foreign Missionary Society of the Presbyterian 
Church from 1912 and of the Woman’s Board of 
Home Missions from 1916 through the local Auxiliary. 

In 1882, in response to an appeal from the Rev. 
Dr. Allen H. Brown, she gathered the first money for 
the ‘Brainerd Memorial Fund,” an effort authorized 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 11 
in 1881 by the Synod of New Jersey to raise $10,000 


for chapels on the seacoast. It was called ‘‘a sort of 
signal gun,” and in 1887, the President of the Board of 
Trustees reported a total of $10,184.88. The dona- 
tion secured by her in 1888 encouraged a further en- 
deavor and she had the comfort of forwarding the 
gifts, although small, for the Presbyterian Historical 
Monument unveiled in the Old Scots’ Burial Ground, 
June 14th, 1900, in Monmouth County. 


Work along philanthropic lines dates from 1878 
with the formation of the Union Dorcas Society in Sa- 
‘lem, of which she was one of the Secretaries. Since 
1883 for life, the General Secretary of the Society for 
Organizing Charity in the City of Salem, N. J., (the 
successor of the Union Dorcas Society), of which she 
was an incorporator, serving in both without a salary. 
In 1889, she became the County Secretary and a mem- 
ber of the Standing Committee on Jails and Station 
Houses in the State Charities’ Aid Association, later, 
of the Board of Managers. In 1898, one of a Com- 
mittee of twelve chosen to organize The New Jersey 
Legal Aid Association of which she was a Director. 
Active and generous in legal work for the poor in 
South Jersey. In 1904, and longer a member of the 
Children’s Protective Alliance, State of New Jersey. 
From 1884, a true comrade in the Woman’s Christian 
‘Temperance Union, No. 1, Salem, New Jersey, and 
with whose cooperation as Treasurer from 1919, a 
noble share in the jubilee period of ‘‘Mother National” 
was finished. Of promise as Superintendent in depart- 
ments of “Legislation” and “Citizenship.” Indeed, 
years of friendly membership in various organizations 
bespeak an interest to the utmost extent, not only in 
the State, but also in the betterment and happiness of 
her native city. 


12 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


In the spring of 1892, at the request of Mrs. 
Naomi Todd Compton, of the National Board of Lady 
Managers, Miss Anna Hunter Van Meter agreed to 
act as Chairman of a Committee to get a list of an- 
tiques and curios in Salem County for the World’s Fair 
of 1893. A portion was taken in the visiting required 
and the correspondence and oversight involved were no 
insignificant part of the necessary labor. That year 
besides carefully arranging the results of the inquiries 
for mementoes of the Past, with annotations, she wrote 
a preface, historical introduction and epilogue, adapted 
a poem, and published all at her personal expense, 
under the title of ‘Relics of Ye Olden Days in Salem 
County, New Jersey, U.S. A.” It is a unique addition 
to the local compilations and a permanent record of an 
interesting period. As one of the newspapers stated at 
the time, “It will grow in value as the years roll by and 
be referred to with pride in all the future.” 


She was one of the Committee appointed by the 
Governor for the New Jersey Room in the Woman’s 
Building used by Mrs. Potter Palmer for her private 
office, also acting as the Chairman of the Salem County 
Committee to gather and forward Antique Furniture for 
that purpose with Mrs. Compton’s cordial support. 
The ancient things were admired in Chicago and the 
prediction that the fame of Salem County would go to 
the ends of the earth, as a consequence of the exertions 
of the Committee, was fulfilled, and a knowledge of 
geography thereby extended. Some of the smaller 
pieces sent to this room were transferred to the New 
Jersey case (of which Salem County already had a mo- 
nopoly) in the Government Building, under the super- 
vision of the state Board, to which she was equally 
loyal. 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 13 


Many doors of usefulness opened to Miss Anna 
Hunter Van Meter after the World’s Fair for which 
there was neither leisure nor strength, but in April, 
1895, the election as a Trustee of Evelyn College (for 
women) in Princeton, N. J., was accepted by her, in 
which other well known women were her associates. 
The decease of the President (and Founder), Rev. Dr. 
Mcellvaine, in 1897, before sufficient endowment had 
been raised, stopped the project. It is hoped the way 
will yet open for the completion of cherished plans 
for the higher education of women in that university 
town. 

For the Woman’s Club of Salem, she has written 
on a diversity of subjects; and for the papers of the city, 
county, and first Congressional District (for the latter 
chiefly in behalf of her work.) Also for ‘The Pres- 
byterian,” “Church at Home and Abroad,” and ‘“Phil- 
adelphia Times.” ‘The contribution, “John Brainerd 
and His Work,” to ‘The New Jersey Scrap Book of 
Women Writers” is a part of a longer one in the 
“Church at Home and Abroad” for April, 1889. By 
selection, the representative from the First Presbyterian 
Church in an all-day Church Development Conference 
at the Court House in Salem, May 24th, 1921. She 
was the family historian and her communications liter- 
ally stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. 


Temporal affairs occupied more or less attenion 
after her father’s death on January 4th, 1875, because 
she was picked out by him in a previous invalidism to be 
his successor to business cares and inside of this disci- 
pline she stayed with ready furtherance as the defense 
of the family through many a problem. Very fond of 
the atmosphere of study and books, a soul imbued with 
sublime cravings for gratification to the full of exten- 
sive travel in this country and Europe, yet experience 


14 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


made a practical woman of the poetry-loving, artisti- 
cally-inclined girl who found there is no place like home. 

When returning from the Wednesday evening 
prayer service at the First Presbyterian Church before 
the July Communion, 1922, and hurrying across Mar- 
ket Street for the shelter of the sheds in a summer 
shower, Miss Anna Hunter Van Meter was struck by 
an automobile and thrown violently against the curb- 
stone. Recovery from a wound on the left-side of the 
head and a fracture of the left shoulder blade, was 
adequate to resume her usual duties but, as months went 
on, there was an apparent loss of vital force and a cold 
contracted when fatigued preceded a stroke of apo- 
plexy on the morning of January 3rd, 1923. With this 
one clear call to Heaven, she passed slowly away near 
the middle of the night of the same date. 


Funeral services were conducted at the house on 
Saturday afternoon, January 6th, by the pastor,, Rev. 
T. Reber Taggart, and included, with selections from 
St. John’s Gospel and The Revelation, her favorite 
hymn, ‘I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say.” Burial is in 
the Cemetery of the denomination. Pall-bearers were 
Mr. D. Harris Smith, Dr. R. M. A. Davis, Mr. R. 
Wyatt Wistar, Mr. George Richman, Mr. William H. 
Hazelton and Mr. Wilbur C. Springer. 

Beautiful in death in the dress of white silk pre- 
ferred by herself, the two sisters added the flowers they 
knew she would have liked. ‘There were floral remem- 
brances from the Missionary Societies and the Pastoral 
Aid Society of the church, the W. C. T. U. No. 1, the 
Society for Organizing Charity and the Sunshine So- 
ciety. A sweet gift was a bouquet from Master George 
Perot, the dear boy in St. John’s Rectory, across the 
way at Fifth Street and West Broadway, between 
whom and ‘“‘Miss Anna”’ there was a strong attachment. 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 15 


First tribute in the local press was in the “Salem 
Sunbeam,” of January 5th, probably, by the Editor, 
perhaps a reporter. ‘The second was by Rev. T. Reber 
Taggart in the Church Calendar, of January 7th. Third, 
by a sister in the “Salem Standard and Jerseyman’”’ of 
January 10th. Fourth, by the S. O. C. in the issue of 
that newspaper of January 17th. Fifth, at the next 
Annual Convention of Salem County W. C. T. U. for 
the Memorial Hour. The daily mail was heavy with 
individual messages and there were inquiries of sym- 
pathy in recognition of her fragrant life in the home, 
the church, the community. 


Two Easter remembrances, 1923, were sent by the 
surviving sisters. One is a State Memorial Member- 
ship in the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union of 
New Jersey. ‘The other is the choice of a piece of land 
adjoining the Girls’ School, Etah, India, that claimed 
the notice of the Woman’s Board of Foreign Missions 
of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A., 156 Fifth 
Avenue, New York, N. Y. ‘The latter is the conclusion 
of a wish that after through wearing her diamond 
brooch, the value of it should be applied to the cause 
under such authority and with which there was a long, 
pleasur able fellowship of obedience to the Great Com- 
mand. 


‘“He sees when the footsteps falter, when 
the heart grows weak and faint; 
He marks when the strength is failing, 
and listens to each complaint; 
He bids her rest for a season, for the path- 
way has grown too steep: 
And folded in green pastures, He giveth 
His loved one sleep.”’ V. 


- 


16 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


CENTENNIAL PROGRAM 


SABBATH MORNING 
November 13, 1921, 11 o’clock 


PLTELIGG) Wee Ree ee ee Mrs. Helen Pancoast, Organist 
DOR OLOR GY scieestriases eh se teas decent tas chore A CARAT eed eee AG The Congregation 
Invocation—Lord’s PYaye..............cccccccoscsescccesceoees Pastor and People 


Scripture—Gen. 12:1, 2,5. Eph. 2:19-22; 3:11-21. 
Hymn 292—Tune ‘“‘Salem.’”—An original musical composition by 


‘(Alvin Robert Pease a grandson of Dr. Robert Hunter Van 
Meter, and harmonized by Mr. Charles E. Glaspey. 
The Choir 


Offertory Solo—‘The Lord is My Light’—Arittsen—Mrs. Austin 
H. Harris. 


“History of the Presbyterian Church of Salem, N. J., Between the 
years 1821 and 19210? cc... Miss Anna Hunter Van Meter 


Big sea he W555 Ae oR CO PPR REE rants Rape STA OPED ye 8 The Congregation 
Benediction. 


SABBATH EVENING 
November 13, 1921, 8 o’clock 


ii ay WDE TC MR RAN dn Sevier ie Mey oy ap ipcta tent Mrs. Helen Pancoast, Organist 
Hymn 847—‘Stand up, stand up, for Jesus”’........ The Congregation 
Prayer 


Address—Rev. J. J. Louderbough, of the Holland Memorial 
Church of Philadelphia. 


PL yan 40 Ger oes al ee eee Liao aati aeat rae The Congregation 
Anthem—‘Oh Be Joyful in the Lord’’..................ccccsesescoees The Choir 
Greetings from the Churches of Salem: 

Protestant Episcopal—The Rev. E. J. Perot. 

Memorial Baptist—The Rev. H. R. Myers. 

First Methodist—The Rev. B. Harrison Decker. 

First Baptist—A layman 

Broadway Methodist—The Rev. H. J. Zelley, D. D. 


Friends Meeting—Mr. Joseph Miller. 
Hymn 370—“Onward Christian Soldiers” .......... The Congregation 
Benediction. 


Wenesday Evening, 8 o’clock 
A social will be held in the Sabbath School room of the church. 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 17 


PRESBYTERY OF WEST JERSEY 
Tuesday, November 15th, 1921, 9.30 A. M. 


DOCKET 
Devotional services. Rev. Curtis O. Bosserman, Moderator 
Constitute Presbytery with prayer. 
Formation of the Roll. Excuses received. 
Report of Committee on Arrangements. Rev. T. Reber Tag- 
gart. 
Reading and adopting of the docket. 
Reading of Minutes if desired. 
Appointment of temporary committee on Leave of Absence. 
Reception and reference of communications. 
Report of Committee on Credentials and Calls. Dr. Gage 
10. Reception of Members. 
11. Presentation of Calls. 
12. Requests for dissolution of pastoral relations. 
13. 11A.M. Order of the Day, consideration of Overtures:— 
a. Eligibility of Women to the Deaconship. 
b. Election of Commissioners to General Assembly for 
2 years. 
14. Reports of Standing Committees. 1. Vacancy and Supply, 
Rev. R. H. Gage, D. D. 2. Brotherhood, Mr. W. B. Castor. 
3. Evangelistic Work, Rev. D. W. Berry. 
15. Report of Installation at Gloucester City. 
16. Reports of Moderators of Vacant Churches. 
17. Introduction and Examination of Candidates. 
18. Unfinished Business. 
19. New Business. 
20. Next place of meeting, Camden, First, January 17, 1922. 
21. Order to pay Janitor. Vote of thanks. 
22. Calling of Roll. 
23. Reading and Approval of Minutes. 
24. Adjourn with prayer and benediction. 


es patel gare 


ANNIVERSARY MEETING—7.30 P. M. 
Auspices of West Jersey Presbytery—Moderator Presiding 


ROUEN IS Fae Ud 5 csc set devises soc dud ve do See rdtac thoeh eines Pdcdvav dal doence The Congregation 

CREE A RCM. eos a sta auastcoavavedverasene seh oarnch Guadh vane vencuievess The Moderator 

Hymn 304; 1, 2, 3, 5—‘‘The Church’s One Foundation”....Congre- 
gation. 


Greetings from Presbytery and Synod: 

Presbytery—The Moderator of Presbytery. 

Synod—The Rev. R. H. Gage, D. D., Moderator of Synod. 
Anthem—‘“Send Out Thy Light”’—Gounod..............cccc000 The Choir 
Address—‘The Contribution of Our Church to the World” 

The Rev. A. B. Collins, D. D., Stated Clerk of Presbytery. 
Hymn 298—“Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken” Congregation 
Benediction. 


The Church has provided an excursion to the Salem Country 
Club and the River Shore and will return for lunch at 5.30 o’clock. 

Train leaves Salem 10.15 P. M. for Woodbury and Camden. 
The Bus will leave for Bridgeton at 9.30 P. M. Entertainment 
will be provided over night for any who desire to remain. Please 
notify Pastor in advance. 


18 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
CALENDAR 


November 13th, 1921 


OFFICERS OF PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


Church Session 
T. Reber Taggart, Moderator 


R. W. Wistar, Clerk Charles H. Ayars 
George G. Richman H. W. Brown 
Trustees 


Thos. J. Craven, Pres. 
Dr. C. M. Sherron, Vice Pres. Lucius E. Hires 


J. Dale Dilworth, Sec’y. Dr. R. M. A. Davis 
Dale S. Taylor, Treas. D. Harris Smith 
R. W. Wistar Chas. H. Ayars 


Sunday School 
Malcolm Musser, Supt. 


Milton Jordan, Asst. Supt. Miss Elizabeth Smith, Stat. Sec. 
Mrs. E. Wheeler, Prim. Supt. Miss Mina R. Klein, Treas. 
Mrs. Wm. B. Dunn, Sec’y. Miss Helen Smith, Pianist. 


Mrs. Thos. Peachey, Supt. Cradle Roll 


Christian Endeavor Society 

Miss Grace Lewis, President 
Miss Clara B. Ayars, V. Pres. Miss Lena Zaiser, Treas. 
Miss Mina R. Klein, Sec’y. Miss Jean Wheeler, Pianist 


Women’s Foreign Missionary Society 

Miss Anna H. Van Meter, Pres. Mrs. Maria-S. Bitter, V. Pres. 
Mrs. T. R. Taggart, V. Pres. Mrs. Mary Springer, Sec’y. 
Mrs. Elmer ¥¥. Smith, V. Pres. Miss C. Patterson, Treas. 

Miss H. F. Van Meter, Sec‘y Temperance. 

Miss A. R. Patterson, Sec’y Lit. 

The Secretaries of Temperance and Literature belong to and 
act for both of the Missionary Societies 


Women’s Home Missionary Society 
Mrs. H. W. Brown, Pres. 
Mrs. Geo. Richman, V. Pres. Mrs. W. B. Dunn, Sec’y. 
Miss Georgie Lawson, Treasurer 


Young Women’s Missionary Society 

Miss Marie Oehrle, Leader 
Miss Hilda Richman, Leader Miss Jean Wheeler, Sec’y. 
Miss Ruth Crispin, Pres. Miss Reba Counsellor, Sec’y. Lit. 
Miss Mildred Reeves, V. Pres. Miss Lillian Hippler, Treas. 

Light Bearers 

Mrs. Frank T. Hall, Supt. 
Miss Grace Lewis, Pres. Miss Eleanore Rumsey, Sec’y. 
Miss Constance Rumsey, V. Pres Donald R. Taggart, Treas. 

Pastoral Aid Society 
Mrs. Elva Wheeler, Pres. Miss Cornelia Pryor, V. Pres. 
Mrs. Elmer H. Smith, V. Pres. Miss Georgie Lawson, Sec’y. 
Miss Carrie Patterson, Treas. 
Men’s Club 

R. Wyatt Wistar, Pres. Dale S. Taylor, Sec’y. 


CHAPTER I. 


And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, 
Unto thy seed willl give this land: and there builded he 
an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.—Gen- 
Caisahe <7. 


It was the promise of Canaan which lured the 
children of Israel in their wanderings. The faithful 
won. They entered the land that flowed with milk and 
honey. 

There is inspiration in the history of Presbyterian- 
ism. And it has a goal. It is a God given doctrine prac- 
ticed from the earliest times. Presbyterian organiza- 
tion has not been confined to any one tongue or country. 
Hence, through the Providential changes of the cen- 
turies, the elements from all the Presbyterian strong- 
holds were happily united in the emigration to this mod- 
ern Land of Promise in our United States of America. 

Wherever they were, they builded altars unto the 
Lord and schools attested their presence. As patriots, 
and in forming the wonderful Declaration of Independ- 
ence; also, in preparing the Constitution of the United 
States, they were in the forefront of the young nation’s 
counsels. 

The Presbyterian Church, with its branches, is the 
largest Protestant body of Christians in the world. Its 
members have borne a distinguished part in Church 
and State, as well as in the so-called liberal arts. We 
are glad to trace our lineage through one or more lines 
of these brave pioneers. 

Furthermore, as we have had personal ancestors, 
so thisSalem Church has had ancestors; and kin of vary- 
ing degrees, for neighboring churches of the same re- 


20 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


ligious persuasion are certainly near relatives which 
deepen and strengthen all the forces which are involved 
in the household of faith. 

The first Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church 
in the Colonies, known as the General Presbytery, was 
organized in the spring of 1706, in Philadelphia. The 
first Synod in 1716; in 1788, the General Assembly . 
succeeded the General Synod. All these had their birth 
in Philadelphia. The General Assembly was the first 
organized body of a representative denominational 
character in this land. Its two principal factors are the 
ministers and ruling elders. These constitute the four 
judicatories: the session, the Presbytery, the Synod and 
the General Assembly. 

There have been many interesting associations 
with Philadelphia. In our own State, with Cohansey, 
or Fairfield, Greenwich, Cape May, Gloucester, Wood- 
bury, Pilesgrove, Quihawken or Penn’s Neck, Deer- 
field and Logtown of the ancient churches. ‘The church 
called Pilesgrove before the Revolutionary War was 
really the Mother of the Salem Church and the 
churches of Woodstown and Elmer. 

Some of the sturdy Hollanders and Huguenots 
who had come to New York State in the seventeenth 
century had been drawn to the milder climate of South- 
ern New Jersey early in the eighteenth century. There 
is recorded evidence of their flocks and herds from 
1709. Deeds range from 1712-14. Their first church 
building, near what is now Woodstown, is thought to 
have been after the Dutch Reformed order. Decay 
settled its career, but not the desire of the people for 
regular worship. 

In 1739, Isaac Van Meter applied to the Presby- 
tery of Philadelphia for the settlement of the gospel 
among them. The Presbyterian organization of 1741 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 21 


followed, the first of a permanent kind in the County. 
Forty-nine members, twenty-five men and twenty-four 
women, headed by the Van Meter, Nieukirk and Du 
Bois families, signed the remarkably orthodox cove- 
nant. Rey. Daniel Evans was the Pastor of the 
Pilesgrove Church in 1741. Quihawken, or Penn’s 
Neck, had a share of his labors. Apparently the begin- 
ning of Presbyterian efforts in that locality. ‘Their or- 
ganization dates from the deed of 1748. 


The church building at Pilesgrove, constructed of 
cedar logs, was succeeded by a brick building, still 
standing, although dismantled, in the ancient Presbyter- 
ian graveyard at Daretown, erected in 1767. Services 
were irregular during the Revolutionary War. Pastors 
did not dare to be accessible. But the old church was 
not desecrated and after the war it was called the Pitts- 
grove Church. The graphic account of its surround- 
ings and interior, when in use for worship, written by 
Mrs. Harriet Van Meter Cone, is too valuable to pass 
into oblivion. Not any of the old churches in this men- 
tion has a more interesting history than Pittsgrove. The 
front faced the woods because this is the warmer and 
southern side. Carved upon the lintel of the entrance 
doors are inscriptions that engage the attention. Back 
of the church was a declivity and a pathway led down 
to a wide brook over which there was a rustic bridge. 
The woodland divided the parish. Such of the congre- 
gation as lived on the other side left their vehicles and 
horses in the woods, the trees giving shelter and hitch- 
ing places. It was an emotional sight on Sabbath morn- 
ing to see families crossing the brook and mounting the 
hill to reach their Zion. 

The church had no vestibule. “Iwo aisles from 
the entrance doors went to the pulpit forming a middle 
block and two side blocks of pews. A few square pews 


22 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


on each side of the pulpit. At the entrance, were stairs 
leading to a gallery which extended around three sides 
of the building. There are two rows of windows, one 
for each floor. ‘wo windows on the side of the Dare- 
town road are in close proximity, slightly elevated. 
These were back of the pulpit to admit light and air. 
The pulpit with its desk was reached by a flight of 
stairs, perhaps six to eight steps. It was enclosed by a 
high railing with a door and the minister always shut 
the door after entering. There was no sounding-board. 

Below, about one step from the floor, were the 
chorister’s desk and seat. Here the leader of the sing- 
ing stood, tuning-fork in hand, note-book on the desk. 
After striking the fork, he ran his voice up the scale to 
get the key. Then turning to the book, he began the 
tune to the words of the hymn, the congregation joining 
with great unction. Many of them were well acquainted 
with the rules of music and possessed voices of beauty 
and strength. 

As the sons and daughters of the families arrived 
at their teens, they were sent to seats in the gallery, the 
young men and young women on opposite sides. The 
fathers and mothers occupied the pews below supervis- 
ing their younger children. 

Large wood stoves heated the building. From 
them the women could easily procure coals for their 
footstoves in the winter. In the summer the elderly 
ones brought bunches of fennel which they nibbled to 
check a tendency to sleep. Thus they were seated in 
the uncomfortable, high, straight-backed pews for a 
two hours’ session. 

There was but one service in the olden days. No 
arrangements for lighting had been made. The even- 
ing services, usually well attended by the young people, 
were held in the school houses of the districts. As the 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 23 


shadows left the dials, they gathered to begin “at early 
candle light.” 

The woods have been cut down, the ravine filled 
and the brook has found another course. Stumps of 
gigantic girth are the mute witnesses of the former 


shades. 


Present congregation is worshiping in a building 


erected in 1867; urged by Rev. E. P. Shields. 


CEA Rata: 


Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but 
that which is natural; and afterward that which is spir- 
itual.—1 Corinthians 15:40. 


Religious controversies had been in evidence, but 
in 1758, after seventeen years of separation, the Synod 
of Philadelphia of the Old Side and the Synod of New 
York of the New Side were united. The care of Indian 
Missions was one of the chief concerns. Rey. John 
Brainerd devoted himself to the tribes in New Jersey. 
He had been regularly ordained in 1748. In 1760, the 
Synod appointed him to succeed his brother, David, 
who had entered into rest in 1747. The annuity from 
Scotland had been suspended and collections were or- 
dered for the support of John Brainerd. 

Missionary labors were needed to counteract, to 
some reach, the unhappy effects of the wars with the 
French and Indians. A general peace was concluded in 
1762. In 1761, John Brainerd was writing of the low 
state of religion and of his preaching to the whites as 
well as the Indians. Penn’s Neck and Salem were in 
his itinerary, by Presbyterial appointment. Allusions 
are made in his journal to several places now included 
in the Presbytery of West Jersey. Failing in health, he 
took Deerfield Church in 1777. He died there in 1781 
and he was buried beneath the floor of the church. 

Revivals were underway in the churches under the 
preaching of Whitfield, Gilbert Tennent, Philip V. 
Fithian and others. Then came the Revolutionary 
War. Churches were laid waste, ministers were scat- 
tered and congregations weakened. 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 25 


New Jersey became a battlefield. Salem was oc- 
cupied by a detachment of the English Army and the 
Episcopal Church was taken for barracks. The maraud- 
ing expeditions into the farming districts, the skirmishes 
at Penn’s Neck and Quinton’s Bridge with the massa- 
cre at Hancock’s Bridge will never be forgotten. 

Presbyterian ministers were fearless in urging pat- 
riotic action. None more so than the Rev. Samuel Eakin, 
who was stationed at the Penn’s Neck Church in 1773. 
He had purchased a house and some land in what is 
now the village of Pennsville. He gave a portion of 
his time to the Logtown Church which had existed from 
from 1750. ‘The congregation there paid one-fifth of 
his salary of one hundred and twenty-five pounds. Alas, 
Mr. Eakin displeased the Tories and he was obliged to 
retire in 1777. There was no regular preaching for 
twenty years. From 1797 to 1805, the congregations 
had ministers. Afterwards, only occasional supplies. In 
1800, the Society of Presbyterians in the Township of 
Lower Alloways Creek in the County of Salem, had 
formally elected Trustees who took the solemn oath 
for the faithful execution of the trust reposed in them. 
In 1801, James Sayre and his wife deeded 148 rods of 
land for a Presbyterian burying ground. In 1803, 
from these two churches, 80 members had been re- 
ported to the Presbytery of Philadelphia. 

The church buildings at Penn’s Neck and Logtown 
were wooden structures, built after the style of the 
times with high pulpits, sounding-boards and lower 
desks for the precentors who led the singing. ‘The 
Penn’s Neck Church was the more substantial and bet- 
ter finished of the two. The Logtown Church was 
finally abandoned, sold and removed to be used for 
other purposes. Its decline is mournful. In which of 
these buildings did the plain old bench numbered 1 


26 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


stand? Tradition says it came from the Penn’s Neck 
Church but it suggests the description given of the fur- 
niture of the Logtown Church. It is among the keep- 
sakes of the Van Meter family, 121 West Broadway, 
Salem. 


The friends of our faith in Penn’s Neck and Salem 
were not neglected by the Rev. Messrs. Osborn, Jan- 
vier and Freeman up to the founding of the Salem 
Church in 1821. They diligently fanned the flickering 
flame. Mr. Freeman was the pastor of the united con- 
gregations of Greenwich and Bridgeton. In 1792, 
with a population of 300, Bridgeton began a separate 
organization, but the church did not venture to sustain 
the gospel alone until 1823 and 1824. Now, four of 
the Presbyterian faith, the First, the Second, the West 
and Irving Avenue Churches. Another, with the title, 
“Mary S. Fithian Memorial Chapel,” was formerly a 
Presbyterian Church organization but for want of sup- 
port as a church in finances and in officers and inbility 
to accede to the demands of the church Boards, the or- 
ganization dissolved and hence the new name of 


“Chapel.” 


Mrs. Mary S. Fithian died February 5th, 
1911, at the age 87 years and her works do follow in 
Sunday evening services with supplies, a Sunday-School, 
the Senior and Junior S. C. E., a Night School on four 
nights out of the seven, beside a Missionary Society for 
the adult women and young ladies who conduct a week- 
ly gathering to sew and quilt. Her daughter, Miss 
Clara P. Fithian, is truly identified with the project. 
Occasional use of the original building in Broad Street 
Cemetery, and revered as the “Mother Church”’ of all 
the Presbyterian Churches in Bridgeton, always empha- 
sizes its own dignity as a historic site. The officials of 
the Greenwich Church recorded their disapproval, 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 27 


1792, for the information of their successors and pos- 
terity. Mr. Freeman published his ‘Baptismal Cate- 
chism”’ in two parts, in 1811. It is a very able argu- 
ment for baptism by sprinkling. 


Presbyterian sentiment did not die in Bent s Neck. 
As late as 1821, there was a desire to unite with the 
people of Woodbury in settling a miniser. Their 
church building was used incidentally, for religious ser- 
vices. Last public occupancy was July 4th, 1826, for the 
celebration of National Independence. Francis L. 
Maccullough, Esq., of Salem, was the orator. Several 
of the officers from Fort Delaware with their military 
band were present. During the exercises, a snake 
crawled out of a broken spot in the wall and created 
much excitement. It was killed by an officer with his 
sword. 

The church at Carney’s Point is next in the line of 
Presbyterian occupation in Lower Penn’s Neck. ‘The 
organization began under the name of the Union Pres- 
byterian Church, Monday, March 5th, 1917, in Com- 
munity Hall, when by letters and confession of 
faith about thirty men and women joined the church. 
The corner stone of the church was laid Saturday, Sep- 
tember 13th, 1919, with appropriate services beginning 
at 1 P. M. In May, 1920, Presbytery was finally enter- 
tained there; 161 members were added in one year 
under the pastorate of Rev. O. B. Close. Their activi- 
ies bespeak codperation and have regular reports in the 
Salem County newspapers. 

In the meantime, the interchurch scheme of the 
Episcopalians and Presbyterians in Salem, which had 
restored in the year of the War of 1812 the Episcopal 
Church dilapidated in the War of the Revolution and 
enabled it to be opened (at different times) for the ser- 
vices of both denominations, appeared to be a success. 


28 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


But as the years went on to 1820, it proved to be as 
much of a failure as the interchurch effort of a century 
later. 


The General Assembly had been sending mission- 
aries through the Western part of New Jersey of whom 
were the Rev. Messrs. Hoyt, Graham, Lowthe, Per- 
kins, Platt, Caruthers, King, Ogden, Parvin and Saf- 
ford. Dr. Robert Hunter Van Meter, a member of 
the Presbyterian Pittsgrove Church, moved to Salem in 
1810. He has the honor of being the first resident 
member of a Presbyterian Church here. He was seized 
for codperation. He responded. Providence roused 
up friends for the accommodation of the preachers in 
the Court House, Academy and interested pulpits. Thus 
a sentiment favorable to Presbyterianism was being 
gradually formed. And general evangelical work was 
not overlooked. A letter in the family, dated August 
5th, 1820, from Rev. Jonathan Freeman, states that he 
had spent $24.80 of the money received from Dr. 
Robert Hunter Van Meter, for the purchase of Bibles. 
Dr. R. H. Van Meter’s house was the first depository. 
That box is still in evidence. See other references. 


A new rector of the Episcopal Church, Rev. R. F. 
Cadle, through the interchurch arrangement, was a dis- 
advantage to the Episcopalians. ‘The Presbyterian ser- 
vices were getting too attractive. Thus, when the Rev. 
Ashbel Green, D. D., President of Princeton College 
came to visit his friend and classmate, Colonel John- 
son, and he was advertised to preach on a certain Sun- 
day morning, December 3rd, 1820, he found thesituation 
changed. The church doors were locked. After those 
who had gathered were dispersed to their homes, Col- 
onel Johnson went to the home of Dr. Robert Hunter 
Van Meter to discuss the matter. As they talked, he 
said: “Doctor, if you will help me, I will build a Presby- 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 29 


terian Church in Salem!” ‘The promise was given. The 
beginning of a Presbyterian Church was then born in 
the hearts, souls and minds of those two strong men. 
They felt as if the Lord had appeared unto them as He 
did to Abram 1921 years before Christ. This cele- 
bration today, November 13th, 1921, of the Christian 
Era, is one hundred years of its existence. 


Plans were quickly made. Dr. Van Meter went 
to the printing office. A notice was prepared stating 
that the Rev. Ashbel Green, D. D., would preach that 
evening in the Court House, the use of which had been 
secured. It is thought that Mr. Robert McMillan did 
the printing. ‘he notices were soon ready. They were 
distributed all over the town and Dr. Green preached 
on the advertised day to a crowded house. ‘Thus, these 
unexpected events opened the way, under the Provi- 
dence of God, for a separate Presbyterian Church or- 
ganization in Salem. 

Dr. James Van Meter was soon acquainted with 
the suggestion of Colonel Johnson. He expressed his 
sympathy with it. The three men named were the 
leaders in the enterprise, forming the mystical number, 
but Dr. Robert Hunter Van Meter was the only one of 
the three who was a church member. Upon him, there- 
fore, devolved much responsibility for organizing the 
little Presbyterian Society and arranging the services 
which were immediately begun in the Academy and 
Court House. It is said that he prayed like he did 
everything else ‘‘with all his heart.” 

These men deserve more than a passing notice. 
All three received their early education in the Classical 
School at Pittsgrove, taught by the pastors of the Pres- 
byterian Church there. And Dr. Robert Hunter Van 
Meter attended a Classical School in Deerfield, New 


Jersey. 


30 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


Colonel Johnson, born in 1771, completed his edu- 
cation at Princeton College under the presidency of 
Rev. John Witherspoon, the only clergyman who signed 
the Declaration of Independence. He was the largest 
landowner and the most distinguished and important 
man in Salem County. His favorable and generous at- 
titude towards the building of a Presbyterian Church in 
Salem meant a great deal for the cause. His handsome 
house was a hospitable center until his death in 1850. 


The Van Meter brothers were the sons of Benja- 
min Van Meter, a ruling elder in the Pittsgrove Pres- 
byterian Church. His immediate ancestors of the nota- 
ble, literary Van Meteren family in Holland, had gone 
to what is now West Virginia, where they became large 
landowners. They employed the immortal George 
Washington to do their surveying and entertained him 
in their homes. Dr. James Van Meter received his pre- 
paratory medical training in the office of Dr. Harris, 
of Pittsgrove, quite a famous local practitioner, while 
Dr. Robert Hunter Van Meter’s was under his brother. 
Both completed their medical training in the University 
of Pennsylvania. The certificate of the younger 
brother was signed by Dr. Benjamin Rush, one of the 
signers of the Declaration of Independence. Both were 
widely known. ‘They were surgeons in the War of 
1812. ‘Their duties in the vicinity which has always 
been the seat of a fortification. 

Very opposite in their temperaments. Dr. James 
Van Meter, born in 1767, had been in Salem from 
1791. He was calm and gentle. He died in 1847 in 
the triumph of a well founded faith. Dr. Robert Hun- 
ter Van Meter, born in 1778, was energetic and enthu- 
silastic. He was in the State Legislature in the winters 
of 1812 and 1813. Governor Williamson appointed 
him Paymaster, in 1829, of the 2nd Independent Bat- 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 31 


talion of the Salem Brigade of the Militia of New Jer- 
sey. In 1834, he was commissioned by Governor Vroom 
as a Civil Magistrate. In many ways, he rendered 
continuous assistance to the infant church. He died in 
1839 after a short but severe illness caused by exposure 
in the practice of his profession. 

Dr. James Van Meter’s wife was Miss Ruth 
Jones, a Baptist, but not a member of the church. He 
had attended the church with her, then situated in the 
midst of what is now the Baptist Cemetery on Yorke 
Street, ever since their marriage in 1798. He became 
interested in the Presbyterian organization. One Sunday 
evening, previous to the dedication of the church, the 
subject was introduced at the fireside. She announced 
her intention to go with him and quoted the touching 
passage from the first chapter of Ruth, 16th and 17th 
verses: ‘“Whither thou goest, I will go: and where thou 
lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and 
thy God my God: The Lord do so to me, and more also, 
if aught but death part thee and me.” In the lonely 
years after her death, he would often repeat the incident 
to his intimates with streaming eyes. To his dying hour, 
he attributed to her decision his own confession of faith 
in the Presbyterian Church. 


The corner stone of the Presbyterian Church was 
laid on the half of an acre of ground contributed by 
Colonel Johnson, now a part of the cemetery, on the 
morning of Tuesday, March 6th, 1821. The ceremony 
was conducted by the Rev. Messrs. Freeman, Janvier 
and Ballentine. Mr. Janvier made the address. Mr. 
Freeman had preached an appropriate sermon the even- 
ing before at the Old Baptist Church. 

In the year 1820, Grant Street, as it now is, had 
no existence. There was a narrow opening, or road- 
way, about where it is now laid extending a short dis- 


32 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


tance beyond where the North Meridian House stood. 
There it was entirely shut off by a fence and gate open- 
ing on what used to be called the Spring-House farm of 
Colonel Johnson. A public road between Quaker Neck 
and Market Street was much needed and had long been 
talked of. Nothing had been done in regard to it as 
there were two opinions. Colonel Johnson favored the 
widening and straightening of the private lane men- 
tioned into a street to be called Church Street and made 
his gift to the Presbyterian Church in accordance with 
this plan. It was reached through the lane of Dr. 
James Van Meter now part of the grounds of the pres- 
ent Manse. 

Opposition and prejudice were encountered. The 
other party decided to run the street through the foun- 
dations already laid of the Presbyterian Church. But 
Colonel Johnson made application for a review at the 
next court. A compromise resulted which cleared the 
foundation walls yet it changed the points of compass 
for the little church. In running the road eventually 
laid out, a small point of land belonging to Caleb Wood 
was cut from his property on the south side of the road 
and remained a wedge between the Thompson property 
and the church property. Dr. James Van Meter bought 
this piece for $5 and added it to the Church Lot. Dr. 
Robert H. Van Meter planted a buttonwood tree upon 
it by the advice of his lawyer to prove possession. 


After the erection of the present church building, 
and the conversion of the former site into a cemetery, 
the Trustees sold this piece to Mr. Fenwick Archer for 
$10 as it marred the shape of the lot and they consid- 
ered it too small to be of any practical worth. The 
tree grown to large proportions was cut down May 
24th, 1892. Mr. Green, then the owner, gave this 
family some of the wood. A handsome cane made 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 33 


from it was presented to Mr. Mason Van Meter on 
his 80th birthday in memory of his father, the planter 
of the tree, and because he had assisted in the pro- 
ceeding. Such cane supplanted several varieties by 
daily use to the end of going out. One more keepsake. 

By the 14h of July, 1821, the church was complet- 
ed and it was dedicated to the worship of God. Rev. 
George W. Janvier delivered the sermon from the fifth 
chapter of 2 Chronicles, 13th and 14th verses. No- 
vember 13th, 1821, the church was organized with six 
true and tried members from the other churches of the 
same faith in Salem County; three men and three wom- 
en. The three men were chosen for elders, Samuel 
Burden, Esq., a former elder of the Penn’s Neck Pres- 
byterian, with Dr. Robert H. Van Meter and Mr. Rob- 
ert McMillan, of the Pittsgrove Presbyterian Church. 
The three women were all from the Pittsgrove Presby- 
terian Church: Mrs. Robert (Lydia) McMillan, Miss 
Sarah McMillan and Mrs. Lois Powell. 


Six others were transferred from the Penn’s Neck 
Presbyterian Church, now dissolved, and incorporated 
with the Salem Church, namely, Mrs. Samuel (Mar- 
tha) Burden, Mr. John Congleton, Mrs. John (Sarah) 
Congleton, Sarah Kean, Mrs. Lambson and Mrs. 
Sarah Lumley. 

These two “‘sixes’’ make the “twelve’’ stated by 
Miss Emma Van Meter, as the number at the begin- 
ning. They are the first enumerated in the records of 


the church. 


A committee from the Presbytery of Philadelphia 
consisted of Rev. Messrs. Freeman, Janvier, Biggs and 
Ballentine for the purpose of the new organization and 
to dissolve the old church organization at Penn’s Neck. 
The following elders, previously elected, were ordained: 
Robert H. Van Meter, received from the Pittsgrove 


34 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


Church, to represent the Salem Church; Samuel Bur- 
den, a former elder, to represent the dissolved Penn’s 
Neck Church; Robert McMillan, also received from 
the Pittsgrove Church, who was then in or near Salem. 
There is no positive knowledge, but an impression that 
at one time, he was connected with the Logtown Church 
and for that reason he was chosen to make the sacred 
number of three which with its multiples distinguished 
a feature of the church’s beginning. 

The new church edifice was built of brick 30 by 50 
feet with a gallery across the north end and lighted by 
long windows. The front faced the north with a spire 
above supplied with a bell by Mr. James Bartram. The 
woodwork of the interior was painted white. ‘The seats 
were benches with backs, the men and women seated 
apart on opposite sides of the one aisle. Later, sitting as 
families in the old and new churches. A tender bond 
with distinctive memories for the children to know 
where their parents had the family pew, trained them 
to sit according to age, listen and have their own hymn 
books. Even the same seat in prayer meeting carries 
naturally with it a certain individuality similar to a per- 
sonal chair in the home circle. Preferred as it incites 
to greater loyalty in attendance upon the worship. Old 
fashioned? Yes, but hallowed as better filled pews 
than at the present time. 

Original part of the church edifice had a wooden 
pulpit with velvet hangings and desk below of ancient 
style. They who remember the bright, metal star in 
the center of the cushioned division for the Bible, where 
it rests on the historic pulpit as a quaint embellishment 
and focus for eyes in religious worship, grieve after the 
disappearance in an interval of fresh upholstery in the 
next building. The pulpit was lighted by small globed 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 35 


shaped whale oil lamps one on each side. It was reach- 
ed by stairs with balusters. 

The lower desk nearly level with the floor, was 
used by the chorister. ‘The singing was congregational 
and, of course, through the week there was a singing 
school to instruct the young people. ‘The sides of the 
church were supplied with tin reflectors, each holding 
a tallow candle. The collection receivers were long 
black poles with black velvet bags suspended at the 
ends on rings. Mrs. Ruth Van Meter gave the velvet 
hangings. Dr. Robert Hunter Van Meter the stove. 
The pulpit Bible was presented by a book seller in Phil- 
adelphia. 

Entire cost of the building was $2,443, of which 
Colonel Johnson gave $1,200 and made good some un- 
paid subscriptions. It is estimated that his gifts to the 
edifice were not less thn $1,300 beside the lot. Dr. 
Robert Hunter Van Meter collected $400 in one day at 
a large vendue near the town. [he remainder was given 
by the two Drs. Van Meter, Messrs. John Congleton, 
Matthias Lambson, Samuel Dunn, Elijah Dunn, Sam- 
uel Burden and smaller sums from various citizens of 
Salem, town and county, with others in Cumberland 
County and elsewhere. The names are given of their 
amounts and show a widespread sympathy. 

A notice was posted in different parts of the town 
and neighborhood for a congregational meeting to in- 
corporate the church by the election of ‘Trustees, to be 
held Thursday, January 24th, 1822, in accordance 
wih the Act of the Assembly passed at Trenton, N. J., 
June 13th, 1799, signed by Robert H. Van Meter, 
President, and Robert G. Johnson, Clerk. On record 
in the Clerk’s Office, that James Bartram, James Van 
Meter, Edward Q. Keasbey, Joel Fithian, Samuel Cop- 


ner, Matthias Lambson and Samuel Dunn were chosen. 


36 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


Rev. Johnson Hubbell in his “historical sketch,” taken 
from the writings of his Grandfather, Colonel John- 
son, states that Rev. G. W. Janvier delivered an ap- 
propriate discourse on the occasion referred to and was 
chosen for the Moderator and Robert G. Johnson for 
the Clerk. He puts Robert H. Van Meter as Treas- 
urer in the list of Trustees. ‘They certainly acted in 
these capacities as the early minutes in family keeping 
attest. Dr. James Van Meter was appointed President 
of the Board and held the office until death. But only 
the seven first mentioned, the number required by the 
civil law, qualified before John Mason, Judge and Jus- 
tice of the Peace, January 29th, 1822. Recorded Jan- 
uary 30th, 1822. They assumed the title and name of 
‘the Trustees of the First Presbyterian Church in the 
town of Salem.” 


GRART ERIE 


And he gave some apostles; and some prophets; 
and some evangelists and some teachers; For the per- 
fecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for 
the edifying of the body of Christ.—Ephesians 4: 11, 
gig 


The new place of worship was not a welcome ad- 
dition in such a small town but Salem has never had too 
many churches. This filled a void being more central. 
It is well said: ‘Denominations are the priceless heri- 
tage of the centuries gone. hey have been born amid 
deep conviction and bitter persecution. One appeals to 
one type of believer, another to a different sort of per- 
son. The common treasure of them all is a simple faith 
in the same Lord and Saviour. All pray in His name.”’ 

Sabbath services were conducted by supplies sent 
by the Presbytery of Philadelphia until the Rev. Moses 
T. Harris, of Philadelphia, was secured for a stated 
supply from January 24th, 1822. On June Ist, 1822, 
Mr. George Robertson and Miss Rebecca Connaroe 
were among those received. Mr. Harris remained 
until October, 1823. He has the honor, therefore, of 
being the first Angel of this church. But the real, or- 
derly work seemed to begin November 9th, 1823, when 
Rev. John Burtt, also from Philadelphia, became the 
supply. June 8th, 1824, the Presbytery met in Salem 
and installed Mr. Burtt. The congregation agreed to 
give him a salary of $300, his firewood, and find him a 
house to live in. That house was on Fenwick Street, 
as East Broadway was formerly called, on the site of 
the present opening of Olive Street. His children and 
the little Hancocks, across the street, played together. 


38 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


Mr. Burtt was a native of Scotland, short in stat- 
ure, with a large head, dark hair and blue eyes. He 
was born and educated in the neighborhood of the spot 
which has been immortalized by the birth of Robert 
Burns. At an early age, he learned to lisp that gifted 
poet’s numbers and his young heart beat responsive to 
the hope of becoming a rival to his fame. The bitter 
winter of adversity destroyed the flattering illusion. He 
was recognized as a preacher of superior merit. 


The additions to the church were encouraging. Col- 
onel Johnson united with it in 1823. He was ordained 
a ruling elder in 1824. That year Dr. James Van 
Meter and his wife, Mrs. Ruth Van Meter, Mrs. Sarah 
L. Van Meter, wife of Dr. Robert H. Van Meter, 
Mrs. Anna J. Ware, wife of Mr. Bacon Ware, Miss 
Margaret Connaroe, with others, united with the 
church. The membership rose to 31 that year. The 
attendance grew from 50 to 200 people. ‘Three new 
elders were added in 1828, Dr. James Van Meter, Da- 
vid Johnson and Isaiah Wood. 


Dr. James Van Meter’s house was a consecrated 
one from the uniting to the church of himself and his 
wife. [he family altar was esablished with morning 
and evening devotions. The house (site of the present 
Manse, 60 Market Street, ) was near the old church. It 
became the chief center of the religious activities of the 
congregation. A cordial hospitality awaited ministers 
and missionaries. Many distinguished clergymen vis- 
ited them. 

In the front parlor a weekly Bible Class was 
taught by the pastor, Rev. John Burtt. At a later date, 
a woman’s prayer meeting was organized and the 
upper room over the parlor was utilized for that pur- 
pose. A receipt to Mrs. Van Meter for $15 in the 
form of a letter, dated 1825, shows that a Woman’s 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 39 


Foreign Missionary Society was in existence. And 
when Miss Maria Ogden, of Woodbury, offered herself 
as a missionary to the Sandwich Islands to the Foreign 
Board and was sent in1827,here was a group of earnest 
women and young girls to take hold of the assisting 
preparations. Enthusiasm of the Salem women for 
Foreign Missions matched that of the New England 
women although no printed chronicle has yet been 
spread abroad to draw the sympthizing tear from the 
reader. Twenty-nine women and eighteen men were 
found that year ready to subscribe to the cause of For- 
eign Missions. What a year of activity it was! 37 
women contributed a total of $35.50 for furnishing the 
poor of the township with Bibles. Not all of them 
Presbyterians but the Presbyterians headed the list in 
representation. In 1828, the work was regularly as- 
sumed in behalf of Foreign Missions under the care of 
the session and women of varying ages collected annual 
dues until the time was ripe for a collection at the Sab- 
bath services. In 1830, a pastor’s library was presented 
by Elias Boudinot, Esq., valued at $50.00. A Miss 
Ellet, of New York (not the Salem family) gave a 
Sabbath School library valued at $25.00 during this 


pastorate. 


After Mr. Burtt left Salem, he had an opportunity 
to indulge himself in distinctly literary labors which 
he improved, but he was glad to return to New Jersey 
and take the little church at Blackwoodtown, which had 
lost its primitive name of Timber Creek, and its con- 
nection with the Woodbury Church. In 1859, he came 
to end his days in Salem where he died in 1866. His 
‘Poetic Hours, or the Transient Murmurs of a Solitary 
Life,’ can be found only in the libraries of the older 
families of the church. That copy in this Van Meter 
family will be placed in The Presbyterian Historical 


40 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


Society, of Philadelphia, where are the portraits of Rev. 
and Mrs. John Burtt and reliable data in regard to 
them. Also, the silhouettes of Dr. James Van Meter* 
and Dr. Robert Hunter Van Meter when this Centen- 
nial occasion has ended. Two such silhouettes are here 
today for observation and framed as an addition to the 
faces on the walls of the upper vestibule. These “‘faces”’ 
are the deceased pastors as far as Rev. William V. 
Louderbough, and a large portrait above a small en- 
graving of him, of Colonel Robert G. Johnson. As ex- 
pected, paintings of the original edifice and enlarge- 
ments as they used to be through kindness of Mr. Wil- 
liam Patterson. 

Rey. Alvin H. Parker, of Cape Island, was the 
accepted supply after Mr. Burtt in 1830. ‘The legacy 
from Mr. John Congleton, a former elder in the Penn’s 
Neck Church, of $1,000 came during his ministrations 
and he obtained from a wealthy mahogany merchant, 
with whom he was acquainted, present at one of the Sun- 
day morning services, nearly enough mahogany to make 
the benches into pews. ‘Thus Mr. Parker was enabled 
to see the congregation more comfortably seated and 
provide some kind of a definite income for the seats 
had been free before such decision. Other needed re- 
pairs had also been made and the membership had in- 
creased to 60. It was in this pastorate that the britan- 
nia communion set was procured and it was the first 


* In 1923, previous to the delayed publication of this manuscript, 
the Pastoral Aid Society of this church secured by the courteous com- 
pliance of the heirs of Mr. and Mrs. George Rumsey (Miss Cornelia 
Hannah among the Keasbey relatives) on East Broadway, through 
the breaking up of that home by death, where it had been a score of 
years and over, with their removal from life in Salem, a genuine relic 
of the past, since it is a portrait of Miss Artemesia K. and Miss rtha 
J. Van Meter, for the church parlor. As they were in chilhood, 
there is a charm about the two pretty little daughters of the four 
children of Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Jones Van Meter and granddaughters 
of Dr. and Mrs. James Van Meter. 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 41 


complete set of the necessary parts as tankard, two cups, 
two plates and a small baptismal bowl to which some of 
the members can point as used at their baptism. 

In 1832, Rev. Amzi Babbitt followed Mr. Parker 
as a stated supply for 18 months. Gifted speaker but 
rather unsocial. Rev. Thomas Amerman, of New 
York, who was next in line for five months, was not so 
pleasing in the pulpit but he showed more in pastoral 
qualities. 

Rev. Alexander Heberton, of Kingston, Pa., re- 
ceived a unanimous call. He was installed December 
15th, 1834, by the Presbytery of Philadelphia. In per- 
son, tall and slender with light hair and blue eyes. 
Under his efficient, increasing labors and liberality all 
the organizations of the church were quickened nor 
were they limited to Salem. he suburban villages were 
visited. ‘The monthly concert for missions was estab- 
lished. ‘The Sabbath School brought under more system- 
atic management. The women of the church were form- 
ed into sewing societies for benevolent and church pur- 
poses. Many new families were drawn in who after- 
wards constituted some of the most valued members. 
Missionary zeal glowed under Mrs. Herberton’s foster- 
ing care and hundreds of dollars were realized, annually 
from the sale of useful and ornamental articles engaged 
by persons in and out of the congregation. Many orders 
came from Philadelphia. 

In 1835, the church edifice was enlarged by length- 
ening the south end and building a wing on each side of 
the added length. This addition gave the building the 
shape of the capital letter IT and brought it out on a 
line with the street where it was entered by two doors 
with the pulpit between them. The entrance still faced 
the pews. A new pulpit of mahogany, the gift of Col- 
onel Johnson, rested on a raised platform with an up- 


42 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


holstered recess and a sofa to match; a bronze lamp 
stood on each side of the pulpit, a communion table had 
been presented; two antique mahogany chairs were 
loaned by Miss Prudence Keasbey, and with a carpet, 
the whole interior became greatly improved. It was 
rededicated. 

Mr. Heberton ordained as elders Messrs. George 
C. Rumsey, Calvin Belden and John Weatherby. Congre- 
gational singing was being sustained with difficulty and 
in 1839, Mr. Heberton succeeded in having a pipe organ 
placed in the gallery with a choir. Mr. Belden gave 
half of the cost of the organ and offered the services of 
his daughter, Miss Rebecca Ann Belden, to play it. 
The music of the church assumed a fresh excellence but 
it was considered rather worldly. The death of Dr. 
Robert Hunter Van Meter in 1839, was one of the 
losses met. 


In six years, the Heberton pastorate was ended 
and he was dismissed by the newly formed Presbytery 
of West Jersey. He never lost his interest in the Salem 
Church. One of his sons is the Rev. William Wilber- 
force Heberton, D. D., Treasurer of the Presbyterian 
Boards of Ministerial Relief and Sustentation. 


Rev. James I. Helm began his labors June 25th, 
1840, as a supply. He was installed as the third pas- 
tor October 17th, 1842. He was with the congregation 
in both of these capacities for nearly twelve years. 
Many changes occurred in that period. The withdrawal © 
of Colonel Johnson from the church was one of the 
unhappy and very much regretted events. Yet Mr. 
Helm was scholarly and the school of which he was 
principal added to the prestige of the church in the 
community. He won the affections of the majority of 
his flock and his subsequent going into the Episcopal 
Church gave sorrow to those who were partial to him. 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 43 
The legacy from Miss Prudence Keasbey of $1000 


for a new church building and the farm from the estate 
of Dr. James Van Meter were received during this pas- 
torate. Mr. George C. Rumsey was also among those 
who passed from earth. He is remembered as the 
giver of the first large gift to missions of $100. Mr. 
Henry Freeman was chosen an elder in 1847. Messrs. 
Thomas W. Cattell, Reuben Hinchman and Henry B. 
Ware were ordained to the same office in 1851. 

The Cattell and Belden families were prominent 
during Mr. Helm’s ministry. Dr. and Mrs. Hannah 
(Miss Rebecca Keasbey) moved into the house made 
vacant by Dr. James Van Meter’s death and the spell of 
it seemed to come upon them. Mrs. Hannah had a great 
many plans for the young people of the congregation. 
They learned not to pass the house, if they were very 
busy, for a beckoning finger was apt to emerge from 
the doorway and the attraction was irresistible. 


Mrs. Helen was an unusual woman. It was at her 
suggestion in 1847, that the ladies of the congregation 
began to gather funds for the purchase of the parson- 
age as the home for the minister was formerly entitled. 
The cost was $2800. $1200 were raised by a general 
subscription and $600 contributed by the ladies’ sewing 
society. The mortgage was not cancelled until May, 
1852, and the resulting difference called for active 
efforts from the Sewing Society, a general term for a 
tremendous amount of energy, generosity and unfldging 
hard work. 

Mr. Helm was dismissed in April. Rev. Daniel 
Stratton, of Newburn, North Carolina, but a native of 
New Jersey, received a call to the church June 23rd, 
of that year of 1852. He was installed the following 
October. Mr. Stratton’s ministry continued fourteen 


years and ended with his death, August 24th, 1866. 


44 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


The present church building was erected through his 
exertions and finished in two and a half years, at a cost 
of $27,000, from the laying of the corner stone. Ded- 
icated October 15th, 1856. ‘The largest givers were 
the families of Mr. Calvin Belden, Mr. Reuben Hinch- 
man, Rev. Daniel Stratton and family including the 
legacy of Miss Hancock, Mrs. Margaret Rumsey, Mr. 
Thomas W. Cattell and Dr. Thomas J. Van Meter. 
The congregation filled it to the doors. The pews were 
sold to the highest bidders and every pew brought an 
annual rent. The congregation grew at such a rate 
that there was talk of sending out a colony to start an- 
other church. It is before you today and so is the 
tablet to the memory of him. 


Mr. Stratton had constructive qualities and a rare 
tenderness of manner without being in the least famil- 
iar. Upon occasion, a gentle humor which disarmed 
criticism. His Presbyterianism was the unchangeable 
type. He was so proud of being a Presbyterian, so in- 
telligent in regard to its history and influence that, 
without being considered in the slightest degree a bigot, 
he knew how to influence those not anchored elsewhere 
wih its importance. His delicate health was the only 
obstacle in his truly wonderful career. He was tall 
and slender, with shaven face, blue eyes and silver hair. 
It had turned early giving him an appearance of greater 
age that he possessed. His ministerial brethren called 
him the “‘saintly Stratton.’ Miss Abbie Paul sweetly 
expressed the feeling of the church and the community 
in a lovely poem after his departure from earth. 

Mrs. Stratton before her marriage was Miss EI- 
eanor Hancock, a Salem girl. Dignified, yet ap- 
proachable, she was greatly beloved. She felt the go- 
ing out from the parsonage as every minister’s wife in 
a similar experience. Her sweet manner when she 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 45 


welcomed the three succeeding Pastors and their wives, 
whom she lived to see in it, did not reveal the ache of 
her heart. Her two surviving children were lawyers. 
One became a Judge in the West. The eldest, who 
remained in Salem, was a man of unusual gifts. Be- 
sides local prominence as an elder in the church, the 
chief librarian of the city, and in other ways, he was 
a Director of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary 
at Princeton. Active in the Salem County Bible So- 
ciety, as all these Pastors and elders have been. His 
paper on Bible Versions and Revisions is one of the 
finest pieces of research and literary expression ever 


published. 


Rey. Robert Burtt, a son of the first installed pas- 
tor, filled the pulpit acceptably for three months after 
Mr. Stratton’s decease. He and his mother aspired 
to have him chosen for the successor, but HG officials 
of the church did not think it wise. 


Rev. Frederick W. Brauns, born at the Hague, 
his father being tutor there to the royal family, was 
installed April 25th, 1867. His bride was a southern 
lady from Baltimore with all the demonstrative ways 
supposed to be peculiar to that region and she was very 
popular in the congregation. Mr. and Mrs. Brauns 
did not mind showing their affection for each other in 
the least and they tried to make their home look as 
much like a humble cottage as possible. 


The church was under a heavy mortgage and the 
manse needed exensive repairs and some rebuilding. 
The Trustees could not see their way to get them ac- 
complished but the ladies of the church did. Their 
fairs and festivals set a hitherto unapproached style 
the fashion for them and were successes. ‘They painted 
and papered some of the plainer rooms themselves. 


46 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


Mr. Brauns was tall, with dark hair and pierc- 
ing dark eyes. A brilliant preacher and very pleasant 
socially. Mrs. Brauns was petite. Their daughter © 
Mary was born here. After a pastorate of sixteen 
months, he accepted a call to the Seventh Presbyterian 
Church of Cincinnati, at a large salary. Not a year 
elapsed before they wanted to return to Salem and the 
people to whom they had become so attached. 


But it was too late. Rev. William Bannard, D. 
D., of the Presbytery of Albany, New York, had been 
installed April 27th, 1869. Dr. Bannard was born in 
England and came to this country with his parents in 
1832. He was a tall, handsome man with fair skin, 
curling brown hair and blue eyes—a typical English- 
man. He came to the church in the midst of a grac- 
10us revival which had been conducted by the elders, 
chiefly Mr. Henry B. Ware and Mr. John P. Moore. 
Thirty-five were received into the church that month, 
the April communion, thirty on examination, the high- 
est number ever admitted at one time. Dr. Bannard 
was a good preacher and Bible teacher. He excelled 
in the prayer meeting. He was a financier and he en- 
gineered the lifting of the mortgage, the large float- 
ing debt and the refurnishing of the audience room of 
the church. How the Trustees worked with him, 
chiefly Messrs Maskell Ware, John Lawson, Albert 
W. Sherron, Charles W. Casper. At last there was 
no debt, a shadow which had been felt from the crad- 
les of many of the congregation. Further improve- 
ments were discussed. 


Early on the morning of October 23rd, 1878, the 
most destructive storm that had ever visited Salem, 


rocked buildings which had stood the blasts of dec- 
ades. [he wind blew at a rate of 72 miles an hour-— 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 47 


almost a hurricane. ‘The surrounding banks broke 
and Salem was an island. 

The slate roofs on the northern and southern 
sides were lifted and fell into the adjoining yards. The 
noise was like great explosions. The steeple swayed 
in the mighty wind but was not damaged. Quantities 
of bricks, mortar, timbers, fell through to the Lec- 
ture Room wrecking in their path. A disconsolate 
group of men and women gathered that Wednesday 
morning, October 23rd, to view the ruins. Dr. Ban- 
nard’s opening text for a campaign of endurance was 
isaiah 64:11 using the words “‘destroyed by wind”’ in- 
stead of “burned up with fire.’”’ The men were com- 
pletely disheartened but the women rose again to meet 
the exigencies of such an occurrence. Once more Mrs. 
Caroline W. Van Meter was the leader. Once more, the 
Court House had to be used for all the services. The 
sanctuary was restored, “‘pleasant things’ came back, 
and made more attractive and convenient than before. 
Total expenditures, $6,590. Previously, funds for a 
new organ had been partly gained. 


Anew, it was necessary to mortgage the church, 
but the people had a mind to work and Dr. Bannard 
was stimulating. The debt was paid and the mort- 
gage was cancelled, January 8th, 1883, in less than 
five years. [he second option for a text at the climax 
by the pastor was in Romans 13:8. “Owe no man 
anything,’ etc. Both discourses are graven upon 
memory like the service rendered by the ladies who 
gathered most of the money, led in the subscriptions, 
added means by fairs and suppers. Also $1590 from 
the Mite Society, a 5 cent weekly due collected 
through these years. There were 16 collectors. There 
were repairs at the parsonage during this period. In 
1897, a new fence was built for the cemetery. 


48 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


Mrs. Bannard was a lively, resourceful woman 
when well. She enjoyed the church life and there was 
a good deal going on. ‘Towards the close of 14 years, 
the failing health of Dr. and Mrs. Bannard suggested 
less arduous labors. ‘They had practiced what they 
had preached and were able to retire. The official re- 
lation was dissolved in April, 1883, but there are ties ~ 
which time and distance cannot sever. Dr. Bannard 
was one of the incorporators of the Board of Foreign 
Missions when he lived in New York City. He was 
called the balance wheel of the Presbytery of West 
Jersey, They, have. ‘passed’ from +:carth yy mem 
graves are in that section of the cemetery for the min- 
isters. Of their sons, two are dead. One, Mr. Charles 
Heath Bannard, has a high, responsible standing 
with the Fidelity Trust Company, Philadelphia, Pa., 


a married man with children and grandchildren. 


The business side of many important things had 
been very absorbing, but that interest in Foreign Mis- 
sionary work blazed forth again during Dr. Ban- 
nard’s administration, in which he was ever an inspir- 
ation, and Mrs. Daniel Straton was the leader in the 
formation of an auxiliary in 1872, its first President 
and the first oficer to enter upon her reward. Her 
approval and generous support did much to encour- 
age the incipient and continued efforts of the women 
of the congregation for Foreign Missions. She rests 
from her labors and her works do follow her. A sec- 
retary of Literature still quotes her willing subscrip- 
tion to the regular magazine as taken “if only to 
watch the progress of civilization.” At first the aux- 
iliary was under the Woman’s Foreign Missionary 
Society of the Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, Pa. 
In 1875, the organization became an auxiliary to the 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 49 


Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Presby- 
tery of West Jersey. 

The Jubilee of the Woman’s Boards of Foreign 
Missions of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., 1870- 
1920, was fittingly observed and for which Miss Har- 
riet Le Fevre Van Meter was the Presbyterial “Key- 
woman”’ by appointment in 1918. ‘The local auxiliary 
rose to the highest point ever reached in money, a real 
‘going over the top” to use a phrase born of the late 
war. Miss Cornelia Prior memorialized her mother 
ina gift of $50. The Misses Mary Caroline, Harriet 
LeFevre and Anna Hunter Van Meter gave $1000 
for an Endowment Fund of the Woman’s Foreign 
Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church, Phil- 
adelphia, in memory of the three generations of wom- 
en in the family of Dr. Robert Hunter Van Meter, 
the income duly credited. 


There have been four other Presidents: Mrs. 
Henry B. Ware, Mrs. Charles S$. Lawson, Mrs. Wil- 
liam V. Louderbough and Miss Anna Hunter Van 
Meter. Mrs. Bannard, Mrs. Josiah Morris, Mrs. 
Henry M. Rumsey, Mrs. Charles W. Casper, Mrs. 
William V. Louderbough, Mrs. Elmer Smith, Mrs. 
Maria S. Bitter and Mrs. IT. Reber Taggart, have 
served as Vice Presidents, the last three the present 
ones. Nine have been in the list of secretaries: Miss Re- 
becca K. Hall, Mrs. Ware, Mrs. Charles W. Casper, 
Mrs. Henry M. Rumsey, Miss Anna Hunter Van 
Meter, Miss Elizabeth W. Miller, Mrs. Jaquette 
(Mrs. Stratton’s granddaugher), Mrs. James S. 
Wheeler, Mrs. Wilbur C. Springer; two treasurers: 
Mrs. Quinton Gibbon until her death in 1904. She 
was a born Treasurer connected in that capacity with 
the feminine activities of the church from her girl- 


hood. Miss Carrie W. Patterson was Mrs. Gibbon’s 


50 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 


successor and perseveres at her post with a growing 
reputation along that line. Miss Harriet LeFevre 
Van Meter and Miss Amelia R. Patterson have 
served the longest as secretaries of Literature. Quite 
a list of collectors in these forty-nine years, the longest 
periods given by Miss Anna Hunter Van Meter, Miss 
Henrietta H. Gibbon, Miss Cornelia Prior, Miss - 
Carrie W. Patterson. Mrs. Charles Ayars is the 
present organist. 

At the outset, the Sunday School Class assigned to 
Miss Harriet Le Fevre Van Meter, October 9th, 
1870, directly from the Primary Room, occupied that 
one, at the right side of the pulpit in the Lecture 
Room, of those two quaint, circular benches with rail 
backs designed for,the use of the smallest pupils. 
They, who neither remember nor sat in them, have 
missed a good recollection of a cozy circle to the front 
in sight and sound of the superintendent. Beginning 
with this Class in its first seat as her first responsible 
oficial service for Foreign Missions, a Mission Band 
named ‘“The Young Reapers”’ was organized by her on 
the morning of July 16th, 1874, and of which she be- 
came President by request of Mrs. Margaretta C. 
Sheppard, Ivy Hall Seminary, Bridgeton, N. J. The 
first to enroll were Mary W. Belden, Maria S. Bel- 
den, who gave the box for pennies over which to re- 
joice together. Harriet Newell Moore, who became 
the secretary in 1876, Margaret Rumsey and May 
Ware with enlargement of Caroline Hackett and Sadie 
G. Chattin in 1874; Francts Burt, now and then, who 
died in 1877. A granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. 
Calvin Belden. 

The meetings were held in the homes of the 
members, especially that of the president until Octo- 
ber 12th, 1877, when the popular size of attendance 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 51 


took the band to the Lecture Room. It had gathered 
from other classes boys and more girls whose orig- 
inality of ways and means, amusing selfdenials had 
sprightly results. Never daunted even when rain 
dashed away the invitation from Mrs. Henry D. Hall 
to have a festival in her garden and.off they went to 
the Lecture Room at the Church. The entertain- 
“ments, such as ‘Cinderella,’ the prettiest of all, 
brought intense fascination to their audiences to see 
much unsuspected talent. So unafraid were they in 
their delight as certain’ characters and when they 
made themselves famous for bright, youthful workers, 
traits for leadership were noticeable. Who can for- 
get that pageant of the children in fantastic attire? 


‘The Young Reapers’’ existed for five years and 
some months. Younger members by announcement to 
be the nucleus of a new Band called “The Young 
Gleaners’”’ with Miss Cornelia Prior as President, 
Miss Letitia Craven, Miss Alice M. Wood and Miss 
Mary B. Craven following Miss Prior as Presidents. 
Mrs. Louderbough and the Misses Patterson were ac- 
tive helpers. ‘The age of the older members suggest- 
ed their absorption by another title, a promotion to 
something in keeping with their growth. ‘Thus, the 
thought of ‘The Young Ladies’ Home Missionary 
Society” was seriously considered and it was organ- 
ized by Miss Harriet Le Fevre Van Meter in the Lec- 
ture Room of the First Presbyterian Church, ‘Thurs- 
day evening, March 4th, 1880, and with seventeen in 
attendance; no injury to an established Woman’s For- 
eign Missionary Society. The more interested in the 
Home Branch of the Master’s kingdom had their op- 
portunity in missionary barrels rolling along to their 
destinations and a quilting feature was flourishing 


with Mrs. John C. Belden in the lead. Both auxil- 


52 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


laries were drawn into quick partnership. It was a 
live organization. 

Selection of Mrs. Mary V. Moore, No. 8 Oak 
Street, by the organizer, for the first President was 
timely. The first Vice President was Miss Harriet Le 
Fevre Van Meter who maintained a strenuous con- 
nection as a dependable officer; later as President in 
the unexpired term of Mrs. Moore without diminu- 
tion of leadership as a Vice President and standby in — 
the copartnership of office for forty years, but who 
stepped aside to honor a rotation the while other re- 
sponsibilities urged their turn upon her. For instance, 
she was elected the Recording Secretary of the Wo- 
man’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Presbytery 
of West Jersey in 1881 as successor to Miss Joseph- 
ine C. Fithian, of Woodbury, serving with Mrs. Eliza 
W. Newell, of Millville, who was elected the Corres- 
ponding Secretary in 1881 as successor to Mrs. Kez- 
iah K. Casper, of Salem. 


In 1892, Miss Van Meter was elected the Gen- 
eral Secretary and completed twenty-five years of an 
earnest service; the compiler and editor, too, of the 
printed Anniversary Reports of the two Presbyterial 
Societies in her business signature, “Harriet F.” A 
Vice President on the Foreign side until 1923. In 
1903, Miss Harriet Le Fevre Van Meter was elected 
the Treasurer of the Contingent Fund in the Woman’s 
Society for Foreign Missions in the Synod of New 
Jersey and so another congenial service brought her 
into closer contact with more workers in the upper part 
of the state. ‘he resignation in 1913 was that she 
could not be away from the family circle in the closing 
period of her mother’s life. 

The first Secretary of the Young Ladies’ Home 
Missionary Society was Miss Elizabeth L. Lawson. 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 53 


The first Treasurer was Miss Henrietta H. Gibbon. 
At the Annual Meeting, March 5th, 1885, the title 
was changed to “The Woman’s Home Missionary 
Society” and in this same year it became an auxiliary, 
to the Woman’s Home Missionary Society of the 
Presbytery of West Jersey. In 1885, a room, No. 
16, Copley Hall, Park College, was furnished by the 
local auxiliary and named for Mrs Mary V. Moore, 
who remained the universal choice as President un- 
til her removal to St. Paul, Minn., June, 1888, in 
search of better health for the household and whose 
departure was deeply bewailed. 


_ A Bible as a final presentation to her with the 
blessing from Numbers 6th, 24th to the 26th inclus- 
ive and the traveler’s Psalm 12ist:8th verse. After 
two sad journeys to Salem on burial of the Grand- 
mother, Mrs. Catherine A. Stretch, and one son, 
Frederick Brauns Moore, her own death and burial 
in the Cemetery of the First Presbyterian Church, 
bear the dates of May 25th and May 30th, 1910. 
The other son, J. Powell Moore, died soon after with 
burial in the West. This pew is linked with the his- 
tory and vivid for loyalty. 

Mrs. Louderbough was chosen in 1889 for the 
next President of the Woman’s Home Missionary So- 
ciety with the hope that a younger leader would draw 
young people. But such was not the case. Miss Mary 
E. Hires accepted the office June 3rd, 1901, and 
showed what an older woman can do when heart is 
in the work and to whom every effort meant happy, 
prayerful attention. Her sister-in-law, Mrs. Artha- 
linda C. Hires, with whom she finally made her home, 
assisted on the social side of the Reading Class con- 
nected with the study and reference books for the win- 
ter. In failing health, Miss Mary E. Hires retired 


54 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


from the chair in1916 asHonorary and died April 15th, 
1921, at eighty-four years of age. Mrs. Hiram W. 
Brown, formerly of Cedarville, was elected the next 
President at the Annual Meeting in 1916, and she con- 
tinues to preside over the affairs of the Woman’s Home 
Missionary Society. To return for a moment to the Sec- 
retaries who have a historic connection: Second, Miss - 
Bessie Lee Morris, Mrs. Harry G. Lippincott, Mrs. 
James Patterson, Miss Bessie K. Hires. Secretaries pro 
tem., the Misses Harriet F. and Anna Hunter Van 
Meter, Miss Henrietta H. Gibbon, (to which three, 
the earliest records owe their preservation), Mrs. 
Sarah G. Ware, Miss Amelia R. Patterson. Miss 
Gibbon was the Treasurer twenty-seven years. Mrs. 
William B. Dunn is the Secretary at 1921 and Miss 
Georgie D. Lawson the Treasurer. 

‘The Little Women” of twenty in attendance 
held their first meeting in the Primary Room of the 
Sunday School, Friday afternoon, February 2d, 
1917. President, Mrs. W. Meritt Shobe; Vice Pres- 
ident, Mrs. William B. Dunn; Secretary, Mrs. J. Du- 
Bois Elmer; Treasurer, Mrs. Clementine H. How- 
ard; Aides, Mrs. J. Dale Dilworth, Mrs. George S. 
Smith, Mrs. John B. Bitter and Mrs. Kenneth Camp- 
bell. ‘There is mention that their meetings were every 
other week and covered ages from eight to sixteen 
years. One afternoon, seventy valentines were made 
and sent to children of the Presbyterian Hospital, Phil- 
adelphia. More condensed statements are lacking. 

During the terrible World War, which stirred 
denominations as well as individuals, the raising of 
that large, handsome, fringed, silk Star Spangled Ban- 
ner, in the corner of the audience room where the tab- 
lets and Font are, was exhilerating with appropriate 
exercises on Sunday morning, July 8th, 1917. It was 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH Dd 


easy to collect the money for such enthusiasm to the 
credit of the pastoral Aid Society. Each Sunday 
School Class measured to its assessment. A real bug- 
ler sounded by invitation to the school, the call to wor- 
ship for the ‘‘boys”’ as an inspiriting feature at the open- 
ing hour, April 28th, 1918. Armistice Day, No- 
vember 11th, leans upon the helping hands for dues 
to the Red Cross and patriotism is not wanting in this 
nor any good cause among Presbyterians. 


Tuesday evening, January 14th, 1919, a Young 
Woman’s Home and Foreign Missionary Society was 
organized at Mrs. Hiram W. Brown’s home. Presi- 
dent, Miss Florence Reeves; Vice President, Miss 
Clara Ayars; Secretary, Miss Helen Smith; Treasur- 
er, Miss Jean Wheeler; Music Committee, Miss Jean 
Wheeler, Miss Helen Smith; Secretary of Literature, 
Miss Rebecca I. Counsellor. Promising, and there were 
some regular meetings in their homes by turn. A fi- 
nancial report was forwarded. A successful supper 
advertised, ‘“‘Noah’s Ark’’, was held in the Lecture 
Room but the record is brief. In August, 1920, a 
society named ‘“‘Light Bearers” was organized and in 
the Church Calendar for October 16th, 1921, this list 
is printed: Superintendent, Mrs. Frank T. Hall; 
President, Miss Grace Lewis; Vice President, Miss 
Constance Rumsey; Secretary, Miss Eleanor Rum- 
sey; Ireasurer, Donald R. Taggart. This, too, lack- 
ed an ageressive push but, perhaps, when school days 
are behind them the memory of their motto will guide 
them to a renewed interest in both sides of the mis- 
sionary motive. The seed was sown. Some meetings 
were held. 

It is fitting here to mention the special services for 
the Germans in the Lecture Room which were begun 


July 16th, 1883, at the request of Rev. Dr. Allen H. 


56 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


Brown, the Synodical Missionary. Miss Anna Hunt- 
er Van Meter collected the statistics. “The session 
took an interest particularly, Mr. Henry Martyn 
Rumsey. But the last German minister, Mr. Locker, 
removed the scene to the Court House without con- 
sultation with the session. ‘They withdrew their sup- 
port and the effort came to an end, June 22nd, 1884. 


CHAPTER IV 


What shall we say then to these things? If God 
be for us, who can be against us?—Romans 8:31. 


Towards the close of Rev. Dr. Bannard’s pas- 
torate, the subect of temperance was assuming greater 
importance. Mrs. Josiah Morris, an influential mem- 
ber of W. C. T. U. No. 1, from which a wide-awake 
appeal went to the churches, succeeded in having un- 
fermented wine used for the communion services. 


' The new pastor, Rev. William V. Louderbough, 
installed December 11th, 1883, soon began to sound 
the note of alarm over the inroads of the liquor traf- 
fic. During his long pastorate, ended by his death in 
the church, near the stairway at the left of entrance, 
Sunday morning, May 18th, 1919, he was sincerely 
an “Apostle of Temperence’’, locally, in Presbytery 
and Synod. With faith in the loyalty of Christian 
women, the session of this church recognized the pe- 
tition signed by 29 from number of them to a circular 
letter dated May 28th, 1894, praying that “3 or 5 
prudent women whose hearts the Lord has touched in 
relation to the cause of temperence be appointed to 
labor in this congregation.’ [The supervision of 
higher courts like the Woman’s Presbyterian ‘Temper- 
ance Association of Philadelphia, Pa., and according 
to the plan projected by the General Assembly’s Per- 
manent Committee of 1881-1913 when the title was 
changed by the General Assembly to Board of Tem- 
perance. 


Miss Harriet Le Fevre Van Meter was chosen 
as the chairman of the first Woman’s Temperance 


58 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


Committee here with approval for continuous effort 
by the Presbytery of West Jersey from September 27th, 
1892. Mrs. Charles S. Lawson, Mrs. Margaret K. 
Dare, Miss Mary E. Hires and Mrs. Benjamin R. 
Kelty accepted their parts in the historic “5’’ and or- 
ganization was effected at the home of Mrs. Caroline 
W. Van Meter, 121 West Broadway, Wednesday © 
evening, June 6th, 1894. So 9 have served in the 
leadership and whose privilege it was to be formally 
reelected by the session but experience proved that 
they went on their way from force of habit. Addi- 
tional names are Mrs. Jonathan Woodnutt, Mrs. 
Hiram W. Brown, Mrs. D. Harris Smith and Mrs. 
Robert T. Seagrave. Monthly meetings, quarterly 
conferences in the church parlor and collections as 
a separate account from the usual avenues. Posi- 
tion was strengthened on November 27th, 1908, as the 
Woman’s Presbyterian Temperance Union but after 
examples of a preference, Miss Harriet Le Fevre 
Van Meter was elected the Temperance Secretary on 
March 20th, 1911, and now the financial report goes 
to the credit of both Women’s Foreign and Home Mis- 
sionary Societies to the Board of Temperance and 
Moral Welfare, Pittsburgh, Pa., this fresh title hav- 
ing been given by authority of the General Assembly 
of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A. Total amount 
forwarded $439. At the starting point, sum of ten 
cents, higher, highest. From 1918, the plan of a 
dollar more a year in keeping with the age and pur- 
pose. 

In this connection, a brief history of the vessels 
used for the communion of the church is appropriate. 
The original group was composed of 2 silver lustre 
cups presented by Mr. James Bartram, 2 American 
Beauty plates loaned by Mrs. Ruth Van Meter and 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 59 


which remained in the care of that home until the 
death of Dr. James Van Meter in 1847. Bread was 
bought but it was cut there and after Mrs. Van Meter 
passed away in 1842, Mrs. Margaret C. Rumsey as- 
sisted Dr. Van Meter’s niece, Miss Harriet Van 
Meter, afterwards, Mrs. Cone, in the cutting. It was 
done on the Saturday evening previous to its use. 
The decanter of wine was furnished by Colonel John- 
son. A complete set of britannia followed and it 
consists of a tankard, 2 cups, 2 plates and a baptismal 
bowl now in the care of the Van Meter family, 121 
West Broadway. A silver set was agitated by Mrs. 
Helm for the new church building who is thought to 
have eventually taken charge of the communion pieces 
which appear to have come into the care of the fam- 
ilies of the ministers. Mrs. Daniel Stratton was the 
next holder of the sacred vessels. ‘Those lustre cups 
stood on the mantel in the pastor’s study. One cup 
was broken. In succession, the other cup went to Mrs. 
Quinton Gibbon, wife of an elder, who relieved Mrs. 
Stratton, her sister, and gave the necessary attention 
to the contents of the communion basket as she was 
opposite the church. ‘This was more convenient to the 
sexton who carried it back and forth. When the great 
grand niece of Mr. James Bartram, Miss Lillie Rob- 
ertson, was married, the treasured relic of one cup 
was given to the bride and prized by her for association 
with father and uncle. Now, Mrs. Alexander Ram- 
say. 

It may have been 1885-6, the basket of contents 
for the quarterly communion was in the hands of 
Mrs. John P. Moore, the widow of an elder, for 
awhile and who passed it to Mrs. Thomas Jones, the 
wife of an elder. In the summer of 1888, Mrs. Car- 
oline W. Van Meter and three daughters of the family 


60 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


of the first elder in this church, accepted the trust of 1 
tankard, 1 bowl, 2 cups, 2 bread plates and table linen 
and retained the custody for twenty-two years, including 
their gift of home made bread. Also, unfermented 
wine by turn. Other donors of the fruit of the vine 
beside the temperance committee were Mrs. Samuel 
Prior and daughters and Mrs. D. Harris Smith with 
the most extended remembrance, of bread too, by Mrs. 
Benjamin R. Kelty, at another elders home, until this 
fall when the vintage failed and a purchase was nes- 
essary for the communion table, October, 1921. The 
Woman’s Presbyterian Temperance Union added a 
_silver tray for the tankard in 1909 at a cost of $19.25. 
When appropiately inscribed, the entire communion 
service and the box of table linen were relinquished 
by Mrs. Caroline W. Van Meter and daughters in a 
formal letter to the pastor. Through him to the ses- 
sion as agreed when taken. 


Rev. W. V. Louderbough sent for the silver bap- 
tismal bowl on Saturday, October Ist, 1910, that he 
might have it in a private baptism. Surely, the rec- 
ords of the session ought to say where, if this bowl 
be not found among the complete number. ‘The 
“Basket”? went away at this date and all the silver 
within by Miss Eleanor Buck whe trought the re- 
quest for it. Mr. Edgar Buck, her father, was the 
last sexton to carry it and whose steady guardianship 
of what belonged to the sanctuary in two former pas- 
torates ended with his death on December 16th, 1915. 
The death of his son, James N., was at the beginning 
of the present pastorate with burial, March 4th, 1921. 
A striking week also for the funeral of Mr. Philip 
Schaum, a useful member who had acted as one of 
the ushers. Both sextons were much respected for 
their combined gentleness made it comfortable and 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 61 


the ladies of this church pursued their various ideas 
in safety. An individual communion set of glass was 
presented by Mr. and Mrs. R. Wyatt Wistar for Octo- 
ber 2nd, 1910, and used for the first time in loving 
memory of Mrs. Henry Martyn Rumsey. A Bible 
for the pulpit in the Lecture Room was the gift of 
the son, Mr. George B. Rumsey. The silver bread 
plates and tray of the former set are yet in use. It 
is said that Mrs. Hiram W. Brown and Mrs. George 
Richman, wives of elders, with helpers, attend to the 
service and all the pieces are kept in the church build- 
ing. A diminutive boxed communion set of silver tor 
the invalid membership was exhibited after the cus- 
tomary observance, January 9th, 1916. 

Recorded pledge signing of 20 girls and boys be- 
fore their final destination at the World’s Fair in 
Chicago, 1893, awaited also the Pledge Roll of 1911, 
issued by the Permanent Committee on Temperance 
for the Sunday School where are the instruction in 
total abstinence principles and the distribution of lit- 
erature entitled ““The Amethyst,’ ‘Moral Welfare,”’ 
etc., etc., as some of the very best effort put forth. A 
covenant card is passed to youthful communicants. 
The names of 44 girls and 34 boys are so inscribed 
beside an anti tobacco group of 5. Historic now 
with 28 well wishers and 79 pledged adults in the ar- 
chives. Roll, No. 2, asks for more. Appreciation 
is expressed for fearlessness by the pastors on reg- 
ular and special days when language is needed. 
Friendship has widened in an exchange of letters with 
other workers in the Synods. Dr. Charles Scanlon in 
1904 and Miss Marie C. Brehm in 1916, were eminent 
pleaders in this pulpit. Rejoice that National Pro- 
hibition became effective at midnight, January 16th, 
1920, although adopted one year earlier than that 


62 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


date, and you are all invited to a share in this great, 
hopeful Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution of 
the United States. 


CHAPTER V 


For we are his workmanship, created in Christ 
Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordain- 
ed that we should walk in them.—Ephesians 2:10. 


The pastorate of Rev. William V. Louderbough 
covers many activities, missionary and otherwise, 
which were carried over from the administration of 
Rey. Dr. Bannard. New features were Christmas ex- 
ercises in the Sunday School, although Rev. Alexander 
Heberton had one such celebration to the astonish- 
ment of the small village of Salem, and formation of 
the Christian Endeavor Societies. The Junior did 
not survive. In 1888, its agitation started for new 
seats in Lecture Room. The Senior is active. How 
could it be otherwise with workers like Miss Wilhel- 
mina R. Klein and Miss Carolina Christina Zaiser 
for Treasurer. Miss Grace Lewis is the President. 
Miss M. Caroline Van Meter has been one of the 
main givers, locally, and in meeting the general ap- 
peals which come to her directly. 

‘This church has always had a Pastoral Aid So- 
ciety but that organized by Rev. W. V. Louderbough 
on March 10th, 1884, was first called by the distinct- 
ive title and it remains a force. The first officers were 
Mrs. Henry M. Rumsey, President; Mrs. Agnes M. 
Starr, Secretary, Mrs. Quinton Gibbon, Treasurer, 
and her successor is Miss Carrie W. Patterson. Nine: 
additional Presidents were Mrs. Charles S. Lawson, 
Mrs. Thomas Dunn, Miss Harriet Le Fevre Van 
Meter, the fourth presiding officer in ten years from 


1894-1898, Mrs. Dilworth, Sr., Miss Mary E. Hires, 


64 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


Miss Cornelia Prior, Mrs. Loyd Bailey and Mrs. 
James S. Wheeler who is the President now. Owing 
to the reported loss of the first Minute Book, the other 
officers, committees, etc., cannot be named but the 
three Misses Van Meter, Miss Carrie W. Patterson, 
Mrs. Walter Hiles, Miss Rebecca S. Ware and Miss 
Henrietta H. Gibbon have served as secretaries. Miss 
Georgianna D. Lawson is the present incumbent. Mrs. 
Elmer H. Smith and Miss Prior are the vice-presi- 
dents. An inviting field of labor and much has been 
accomplished by stirrings as years multiplied. In the 
fall of 1889, a spirit of renovation seized both men 
and women for the interior and exterior of the church 
were made more attractive. As the requisite dollars 
were not forthcoming for new carpets, enough wise 
hearted women put their fingers to the old ones and, 
when neatly tacked, a lease of longer endurance saw 
their mission out. 

In July and September, 1890, English ivy and 
Virginia creeper were planted at the four corners of 
the building facing the street but which did not pros- 
per at this date. It was in this year that the large 
century plants, formerly in possession of Mrs. James 
Bitter were lifted to position upon the front squares 
of grass. When their weight made it more convenient 
to use the shelter near one stairway rather than the cel- 
lar at Mrs. John C. Belden’s home, they perished 
from the cold in the winter of 1893. The tubs were 
filled wih geraniums as hardy and easy of renewal for 
another season after they had hibernated in a pit 
owned by Mrs. Caroline W. Van Meter. These failed 
in the summer heat for lack of moisture. 

Miss Van Meter’s term of office in the Pastoral 
Aid Society was at a brisk pace and financial entertain- 
ments meant considerable sociability. “That Autumnal 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 65 


Festival was rare. Advertisements in prose and 
rhyme drew a large patronage. ‘There was a novel 
Birthnight Party for these two in the Lecture Room. 
St. Valentine’s Market was in what used to be Rum- 
sey Hall and from the profit $200 relieved the debt 
of the Board of Trustees. Bright, alluring saluta- 
tions at the portal were in charge of Miss Mattie 
Shute, now Mrs. George Carpenter. In a most in- 
viting department of booths, Mrs. M. Schaible Willis 
charmed every one by tasteful arrangements. A June 
Fete found itself in too much warm weather in the 
Standard Building and uncoveted physical results. 
The Junior Editor of the Salem Sunbeam had a warn- 
ing in a brief, amusing jingle after the style in vogue. 
This was preserved. Victims were soon well. ‘That 
February Bazaar in the home of the Harrisons, where 
now stands the Mecum Building, another rhythmisi, 
Mrs. Charles Glaspey, was heard and her lines are 
still enjoyable. A covenant child of the church, Mrs. 
Loyd Bailey, comes to mind when the collection plates 
are passed on Sunday. Mrs. C. W. Van Meter and 
daughters presented to the Pastoral Aid Society a 
gavel fashioned from a portion of the mahogany rail 
which topped the pews in the old church. Of course, 
the handle was tied with blue ribbon. 

Change is busy and some years are conspicuous 
for deaths in groups. ‘The young did not escape. 
Miss Sarah Ellet, Mr. Furman J. Mulford, Miss 
Harriet Newell Moore not far apart. Again Mrs. 
Daniel Stratton, Mrs. John Burtt, Mrs. Amelia Patter- 
son,Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson, Miss Mary English and 
Miss Mary James within five months. Attention was 
riveted upon Miss Amelia Birchmeier, Mrs. John 
Hires, Mrs. Hill, another physician, Dr. T. Patter- 
son, two former pastors, Rev. Alexander Heberton 


66 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


and Rey. Frederick W. Brauns and twelve months 
between, Mrs. Prudence Jones and Mrs. Mary Jane 
Brown. A continued summary. Peculiar interest 
surrounds the aged members whose love for Christ 
and His cause never waned. Slowly, those worship- 
ers who came from the old church building to the new 
building slipped away and something precious hovers 
about their names. They knew its founders, felt its 
struggles, grew with its growth and strengthened with 
its strength. Erecting and furnishing of the church 
kitchen was accomplished in 1910. at a cost of $700 
and over by the efforts of the Pastoral Aid Society. 
A nest egg in kitchen fund. 

Rev. W. V. Louderbough was in hearty accord 
with all the benevolent work of this church and city 
whose claims he did ably introduce. Mrs. Louder- 
bough was the second bride and _ interested in the var- 
ious church societies; for several years, she was the 
leader of the Foreign Reading Circle. Their son, 
Rev. J. Janvier Louderbough, is the pastor of the 
Holland Memorial Church, of Philadelphia, and the 
mother makes her home with him. The large bequest 
from the estate of the Misses Artemesia K. and Mar- 
tha J. Van Meter after the death of the former on 
January 16th, 1900, and of the latter on July 3rd, 
1901, is in the history of the Louderbough pastorate. 
His printed anniversary sermons had a free distribu- 
tion beside the local press comment. 

A farm received from them and the old manse, 
59 Market street, owned by this church were sold. 
The house on its colonial foundations with the first 
stone steps in the village for entrance to the front 
door, now arranged for callers to alight at the curb, 
and formerly the home of Dr. and Mrs. James Van 
Meter, which also came into the possession of this 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 67 


church through them, was sold and moved off. It 
resisted the separation as if acquainted with the mys- 
teries of the will but it was finally done and the foun- 
dations were used in a more central part of the lot on 
which was built a new manse and this is the memorial 
of the Misses Artemesia K. and Martha J. Van Me- 
ter at a cost of $8000. The ancient brass knocker is 
on the side door. A balance, $1000, was held toward 
the renovation of the church building and by which 
stained glass windows took away those of ground 
glass with their inside blind shutters. The organ was 
brought from the gallery to the right corner of the 
audience room adjoining the pulpit and electricity was 
introduced at the expense of $6000. To the left of 
the Hymn Board, the congregation put a bronze tab- 
let to the memory of Rev. W. V. Louderbough be- 
neath that to Rev. Daniel Stratton. Rev. T. Reber 
Taggart was installed as the Minister on the evening 
of July 7th, 1921. May the God of all grace answer 
prayer for the ingathering of souls and stablish be- 
lievers in every good word and work through his pas- 
torate 

On Sunday, April 4th, 1909, there was set apart 
to the glory of God and for the Sacrament of Baptism 
in the audience room of this church a handsome Bap- 
tismal Font of statuary marble, presented by Mrs. 
Harriet Van Meter Cone as a tribute to her father, 
Dr. Robert Hunter Van Meter. ‘Total elevation 4 
feet, 7 inches. Its own pillar for support in a lower 
room. Mrs. Cone was at this date the oldest com- 
municant member of this church. She was present at 
the dedication of the first building on Grant street al- 
though not quite a year old. Below the carving, at 
the top of the bowl are the words: “In the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” At 


68 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


its base is a wreath of ivy which Milton describes as 
‘never sere’. 


For the water, there is a silver bason, lined with 
gold suggested by the Biblical description of the ves- 
sels of the House of the Lord in the Old Testament. 
The silver lid is inscribed “Go ye therefore and teach 
all nations, baptizing them’’—the forepart of a verse 
completed on the Font and found in St. Matthew 28: 
19. A special die was cast for the bason and lid. Very 
interesting in many ways were the morning services 
that Sabbath. It was the regular time for the observ- 
ance of the Lord’s Supper. A great, great grand- 
daughter of the Rev. Samuel Eakin, a former pastor 
of the Penn’s Neck Church, Mrs. George B. Rumsey, 
was publicly received into the communion of this 
church, after which her second infant daughter, EI- 
eanor Margaret, was baptized—the first use of the new- 
ly erected Baptismal Font. Two choice vases for 
flowers upon the pulpit platform were given by his wife 
and children in memory of Mr. George B. Rumsey, 
who died October 16th, 1914, to the third generation 
in the eldership. 


In the multiplicity of memorials, there is a large 
window in pulpit recess as a token of affection by the 
Sherron family to a daughter, Miss Eva Alberta, who 
died October 2nd, 1900. Later, her Grand piano was 
presented by the mother to the Lecture Room for use 
in the Sunday School, the prayer meeting, or on any 
occasion when a musical instrument of the Strjnway 
make is a felicitous increase to the furnishings. The 
Bible now in use in the pulpit of the audience room is 
another memorial and to the father, Mr. Albert W. 
Sherron, who died in 1911 and from whose estate 
there is a legacy of $500 to this church. Of a famil- 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 69 


iar connection with the Board of Trustees and the ses- 
sion. 

The first Sunday School in Salem is believed to 
have been owing to the Friends and to date from 
1813. The Union Sunday School of 1819 followed. 
Then the separate organizations. ‘The Sunday School 
of the First Presbyterian Church began in 1824 and 
women have the honor of being in the front rank of 
the life line thrown out 97 years ago. What a line it 
has been! Deaths and removals making gaps, now 
and then, yet the vacancies filling up and the work go- 
ing on, the officers, teachers and scholars increasing 
with the years. Pastors, Superintendents, Secretarics, 
Treasurers, Librarians, the singers and players upon 
instruments striving together for a creditable enlarge- 
ment even through the horrors and heroisms of wars. 

How proud were those pupils that their teacher was 
Colonel William B. Robertson of the Civil War, for 
there was this period, too. ‘The decorators, who with 
loving hands have adorned the church for bridals and 
memorials, for death as well as life, have appeared 
and disappeared, each in his or her department and 
generation, all swelling the grand total of labor, wor- 
«hip, giving. Sons and daughters with grandsons and 
granddaughters, nieces and nephews taking the places 
oi other relatives. And when these were not avail- 
able, the sons and daughters of strangers, for the walls 
of the spiritual Jerusalem must be built and the toilers 
have gathered. 

Periods of families have been noticeable. The 
Van Meter period in the beginning with Mrs. Ruth 
Van Meter, Superintendent, Miss Mary Van Meter, 
Secretary and Miss Emma Van Meter, Librarian, has 
never ended. ‘These represent the two Van Meter 
brothers, Drs. James and Robert Hunter. The grand- 


70 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


children of both among the teachers and officers, 5 of 
them at one time. Miss Harriet Le Fevre Van Me- 
ter is the last of this family in the teaching force for 51 
years and a fraction at this centennial. October 9th, 
1870, is the date of the first of her three classes in 
the Main Room which contributed a total for all of 
$616 in their history. Now that the final one of 28. 
regular pupils on the list enters a training school for 
nurses, their teacher will turn to the Home Class De- 
partment as a progression for herself. The years, 
1895-1909, are included in her lengthened service for 
the Sunday School as superintendent of the Primary 
Room and when she was proud to have as pupils on 
the Roll, Richard and Jane Hubbell, the great grand- 
children of Colonel Robert G. Johnson, if only in a 
brief attendance. 

While in the Primary Room, Miss Harriet Le 
Fevre Van Meter felt the needs therein as the pred- 
ecessors had for something beside restricted, shabby 
leftovers. With her always faithful Assistant Super- 
intendent, Mrs. Maria S. Bitter, and the corps about 
her, the modernizing of that room with light, becom- 
ing furniture and fixtures began. It was not an easy 
task. Miss Alice M. Wood, a former Superintendent 
and her helpers, accumulated $80 and then, overcome 
with discouragement, Miss Wood passed the balance 
of the money, after a limited expenditure, to Miss 
Van Meter who passed it to the Main Room for the 
purchase of a new organ with oaken exterior. Noth- 
ing less than a piano answered the ideas of Miss Van 
Meter but the rivalry which ensued meant one for 
the Main Room in advance. At once, there was a de- 
cision to have a piano at less cost as the Primary 
Room would probably be the heir to another in that 
of the Main Room, when its own specimen was worn 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 71 


out and sold. Exactly so upon the gift of her daught- 
er’s piano by Mrs. A. W. Sherron. 

The Van Meter family and supporters bravely 
'}d in the economies and money-making required by 
the circumstances and came out with a model up-to- 
date Primary Room with every feature in excellent 
taste. ‘The audited account, $225.98, proved a vic- 
torious fact and this was in addition to that gift of $200 
to the Board of Trustees. Mrs. Harriet Van Meter 
Cone afhxed the pictures put into circuation by the 
New York Observer around the walls at her personal 
expense and these remained there until the next fresh- 
ening in the church, so fascinating, when in some 
careless taking down the frames were injured unto 
retirement. The church parlor was complimented in 
this connection of collected funds with a new carpet, a 
new bookcase and a new commodious walnut desk with 
retouched woodwork. It was in similar repairs, Jan- 
uary 22nd, 1879, that Mrs. Henry D. Hall presented 
a Bible for a small table which stood in the centre of 
the parlor before a promotion to the Main Room. 
The original Bible of this church was handed to the 
keeping of Mrs. Robert Hunter Van Meter, whose 
maiden name, Miss Sarah Leake Whitaker, excites an 
inquiry whether any other church in this Presbytery 
ever had so many of “‘Sarah”’ on its register as Salem 
First. 

To look back a moment at the Primary Room, 
the first pianist was Miss Elizabeth Griscom Redstrake 
who became the bride of Dr. Lewis Moore Hires on 
November 9th, 1905, and went to Colorado Springs, 
Col. Her testimony is on record for ten short years 
of service, as she called them, and much individual 
enjoyment with the tiny folks who missed the music 
with the devoted interest. Miss Elsie Smith, after- 


72 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


ward Mrs. Glaspey, and Miss Marguerite H. Gay, 
who visits here now as Mrs. J. Warren Davis, came 
into their time for instrumental and vocal gifts. 
Workers grew. If the full history of the Sun- 
day School should ever find a_ publisher, the 
self-denying efforts of Miss Maria D._ Burtt, 
who organized the infant class, its title at be-- 
ginning, and labored until thoroughly established by 
May, 1864, should be preserved. ‘Those descriptive 
pages summarized by Miss Henrietta H. Gibbon as 
part of her service in the Primary Room, after an ex- 
change of letters with Miss Burtt, are sacred infor- 
mation and of a nature to arrest the attention of all 
who are browsing in the archives. First pupils were 
John Lawson, Thomas B. Ware and James S. Wheel- 
er. In a term of 18 years much of the expense of 
maintenance was met by the leader and co-workers. 
Miss Burtt spent her declining years in Blackwood, 
N. J., a former charge of Rev. John Burtt, the father, 
and died there in the spring of 1906, with burial in 
the cemetery of the Presbyterian Church in Salem. 
Then, Mr. John P. Moore led ‘the lambs of the 
flock”’ as he tenderly reported them and their gifts. 
A Rumsey period with Mrs. Margaret C. Rum- 
sey as a teacher, her son, Mr. Henry Martyn Rumsey 
as teacher and superintendent in the Primary Room, 
and Main Room, a service running over 40 years, and 
upon retirement, a loving cup was presented to him. 
His daughter, Miss Margaret C. Rumsey, as superin- 
tendent of the Primary Room and associated with her 
was Miss Harriet Newell Moore, as assistant superin- 
tendent. Both were members of the first class of Miss 
Harriet Le Fevre Van Meter. His son, Mr. George 
Rumsey, in the Library. The Belden period with Mr. 
Calvin Belden in his long term of 30 years as Superin- 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 73 


tendent, his daughters as teachers, a grandson, Mr. John 
C. Belden, as Secretary, granddaughters as teachers, one 
an officer in the Primary Room. The Ware period 
with Mr. Henry B. Ware for the third Superinten- 
dent of the Main Room in nearly a score of years. 
The Wheeler period with Mr. Caleb Wheeler as 
teacher and treasurer. His sons in the Library and 
a granddaughter in evidence. The Kelty period with 
four as officers; the Ale period of two with a Secre- 
tary and Treasurer and sisters as pupils. 


Bannard period with Mr. William N. Bannard 
as Superintendent and Mr. Horace B. Bannard as Sec- 
retary. The Hall period with father and son follow- 
ing each other as Secretaries. “The Patterson period 
and the gifts of Dr. James Patterson, now of Col- 
orado, still coming to the Sunday School. The Moore 
period with all of the family in the Sunday School. 
The Gable period with Mr. Ralph B. Gable as Sec- 
retary and his wife as Superintendent of the Primary 
Room in a brief term just before that of Miss Van 
Meter. ‘The Prior and Chew periods, the Craven 
period, the Hires period, the Jaquette and Miller 
periods. ‘The Bennett period as a recent shining ex- 
ample of leadership in the Sunday School, the Elder- 
ship, the Brotherhood, the Boy Scouts and everything 
which pertained to the progress of Christ’s Kingdom. 
The death of Mr. C. Weber Bennett in 1921 at 39 
years of age was that of a finished course of useful- 
ness. There was a Smashey period and then removal 
to Bridgeton. 

Time fails to call them all up from a misty past 
in details for minute books had a way of vanishing 
and the allotted space for this paper is slipping away. 
The present officers are Mr Malcolm Musser, of the 
Y. M. C. A., as superintendent of the Main Room; 


74 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


Mr. Milton Jordan, Assistant Superintendent. Mrs. 
William B Dunn, Secretary, Miss Elizabeth Smith, 
Statistical Secretary, Miss Wilhelmina R. Klein as 
Treasurer and it is said that her reports never have to 
be adjusted. ‘They can be read as she writes them. . — 
Miss Helen Smith, Pianist. Mrs. James S. Wheeler 
has been the Superintendent of the Primary Room 
from the first Sunday in December, 1909, at resigna- 
tion of Miss Van Meter. In the service of that room 
is Miss Carolina Christina Zaiser from 1906 and 
from the second Sunday School class of Miss Harriet 
Le Fevre Van Meter. She brought a shy niece, who 
sang with the ease of a bird, and by endearing inter- 
course with the children holds an honored position. 

Upon the recommendation of the State and 
County Sunday School officers, a Cradle Roll was or- 
ganized as a department of the Primary Room by 
Miss Harriet Le Fevre Van Meter and Mrs. Maria 
S. Bitter on August 24th, 1902, and who gathered a 
Roll of 56 girls and boys. First name on it was 
Georgine M. Githens, a great, great granddaughter of 
Mr. Calvin Belden. Promotion to the class in three or 
four years. ‘lhe Superintendent takes the chiid by 
tne hand and offers a prayer in particular. Further 
remembrance on the birthdays and holiday season. 
First regularly elected Superintendent of it was Miss 
Esther Smith, 1907-1914. Afterward, Mrs. W. Her- 
man Morris. Successors to this office, Mrs. Louder- 
bough and Mrs. ‘Thomas Peachey. 


As nearly as can be estimated, the benevolence 
of the congregation during the century is not less than 
$95,221; while for home expenses, it must reach 
$215,000, perhaps more. It is safe to say on both ac- 
counts the record must exceed $300,000. The report 
for the Church year ending March 3l1st, 1921, is as 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 75 


follows: Elders, 4; received on profession,.17; oy 
letter, 13; dismissed, 5; deceased, 8; whole number, 
340; infants baptized, 5; adults, 5; Sunday School, 
178. Contributions:—Home Missions, $760; For- 
eign Missions, $748; Education, $132; Sunday School 
Missions, $104; Church Erection, $86; Ministerial 
Nelieta. 5125.3) Freedman, .'$43/)\ Lemperance,7 $5 1; 
Evangelistic Work, $285; Bible Society, $10; Gen- 
eral Assembly Tax, $58.14; Congregational expens>, 
$4,100; Miscellaneous, $1,202. ‘he latter item was 
mainly for European and Armenian Relief. 

It has not been possible to compile the statistics 
_of life, death and removals of the years from the city, 
one of the drawbacks to growth in town of geographi- 
cal situation.. Since the arrival of Rev. I. Reber ‘Tag- 
gart as a supply from April, 1920, he has officiated at 
21 funerals, 8 of them members of the church; 7 mar- 
riages. Total additions to the church, 43. 

Hlders and Trustees of this church have repre- 
sented life in their various occupations as profession- 
al men, bankers, agriculturists, merchants, manufac- 
turers, civil and military men. Besides those mention- 
ed, one recalls Dr. Quinton Gibbon and his lasting ser- 
vice as clerk of the session. Educated and a fine pen- 
man, he was a great solace. That home was ever open 
to the ladies of this church for their executive confer- 
ences and high achievement. 


Property of this church consists of the present 
stately edifice which has cost about $40,000. ‘The 
Pittsgrove farm bequeathed by Dr. James Van Meter, 
valued at $10,000. ‘The present Manse made possible 
by the bequests of the Misses Artemesia K. and Mar- 
tha J. Van Meter and $1,000 from them to the En- 
dowment Fund of the Cemetery. A farm in Quinton 
Township among their gifts. Their home property 


76 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


covering 14 acres with a commodious brick house and 
$10,000 at interest for the equal benefit through the 
income of it to repairs of the church and expenses of 
the Sunday School. 

Time thrills but time flies. People die and are 
forgotten unless linked with some immortal work. 
The Church is of that character. 

“To Zion shall be given 
The brightest glories earth can yield 
And brighter bliss of heaven.” 

The pastor, Rev. T. Reber Taggart, presided in 
the pulpit of the handsome building on Market street 
adjoining the home, in life, of Colonel Robert G. John- 
son, for the Centennial Program. November 13th, 
1921, was a clear Sabbath day. Fellowship was the 
key note of the evening service. Rev. J. Janvier Lou- 
derbcugh, son of a former pastor, delivered an ad- 
dress, followed by representatives of all the Protes- 
tant Churches of Salem, the Episcopal among them, 
who gave up or dismissed their individual gatherings 
to invite their congregations to join in the celebration 
which was a delightful aftair. A crowded audience 
room even with a prospect of a change in the weather. 

On Tuesday, November 15th, the Presbytery of 
West Jersey added their recognition of the happy 
event by their presence. It was an exceptional priv- 
ilege in the evening to listen to the address of Rey. 
Dr. A. B. Collins, Stated Clerk of the Presbytery, on 
‘The Contribution of Our Church to the World.” The 
next evening, November 16th, 1921, a social, which 
was largely attended, started the new century on its way. 

Another memorial, a bronze tablet at the door- 
way of the church for a clear title of it to passers-by, 
is the gift of Miss Bessie K. Hires, to her father, 
Hon. George Hires, who died in 1911, while a member 


FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 77 


of the Board of Trustees. A greeting awaits not only 
the membership and regular attendants but all who do 
not worship elsewhere. ‘The weekly Calendar will 
have the tidings of this household of faith. 


SATURDAY AFTERNOON AND NIGHT 
IN SALEM 


By Mrs. HARRIET VAN METER CONE. 


(Born July 26th, 1820. Died September 14th, 1913) 
In one of the old Geographies, Salem, New Jersey, ~ 
is mentioned as 


“A town of ancient date, 
But far from being very great.” 


To the antiquarian its very age renders it a worthy 
study. Relics and ways of Colonial times yet linger. 
None perhaps more striking than the time immemorial 
custom of a general gathering, by common consent, 
from all quarters of the farmers, suburban and nearby 
citizens, of every age, color and sex at a central spot, 
known as “The Corner’ on Saturday afternoon and 
night of each week during the year unless prevented by 
exceedingly inclement weather. The first settlers laid out 
two main streets. One running due east and west, the 
other from the north, meeting the former about mid- 
way of its length. This arrangement gave two corners, 
but on account of their mutual dependence, they have 
been blended into one appellation of ‘““The Corner.”’ 

The public buildings consisting of the Stone Jail, 
square brick Court House, Market House and Whip- 
ping Post with intermediate Surrogate’s and Clerk’s 
Offices, were erected as early as 1735 on the sides of 
the north corner and surrounded by an ample pavement 
of brick. (The onward march of time took away the 
old Jail and Whipping Post. A handsomer Jail is 
farther down Market Street.) In the course of time, 
the opposite sides were occupied by the chief hotels, 


SALEM, NEW JERSEY 79 


stores, offices, shops for trades, becoming a dense col- 
lection of suitable buildings for business purposes. In 
later years these have been provided with fixed awnings, 
affording a shelter for their goods and, incidentally, the 
crowd which gathers on Saturday when ‘‘The Corner”’ 
assumes somewhat the appearance of a Venetian Plaza. 


Early in the afternoon, carriages begin to enter 
the town. Hotel and livery stable sheds are soon filled 
while the late comers find the hitching posts for a half 
block on adjoining streets their only accommodation. 
Centralization of the crowd around the Court House 
for one of the ancient customs of this ancient town is 
- the Saturday auction. he Auctioneer’s platform is on 
the stone steps of the Court House. Here are sold 
valuable farms, tracts of woodland, bank stock, live 
stock, furniture, manufactured articles and other things 
‘too numerous to mention.”’ ‘The Lares and Penates 
of many an extinct family have on this spot been scat- 
tered to the four points of the compass. While alas, 
death, misfortune, or extravagance, has brought many 
properties to the same result. Not the least important 
factor in these Saturday sales is the Auctioneer himself. 
Known far and wide for many a year even in hoary age, 
he still continues to ply his profession. With wit and 
wisdom and argument he handles every kind of prop- 
erty, product and object of sale. To him are entrusted 
the management and success, none doubting his fairness 
and judgment. 

But the afternoon wanes, night closes around. 
Lights shine out in every direction, vehicles are still ar- 
riving. The crowd increases. No confusion, no rowdy- 
ism, yet constant movement and ever swelling sound of 
conversation can be heard for blocks. To add variety 
to the scene, the soap peddler and quack medicine ven- 
der come from afar and with their endless tongues 


80 SALEM, NEW JERSEY 


spout the excellence of their wares to the gaping, listen- 
ing crowd. (In 1917, the County Board of Freeholders 
banished the stands from the county’s property.) Hard 
times are all forgotten, dimes and quarters yield to such 
eloquence! Humanity is ever a study at this “’Corner.”’ 
The colored population is a large one in this community 
and furnishes no small quota to the numbers on Satur- 
day night. Their hearty laugh and honest but original 
confabulations, form not the least amusing, though it 
must be confessed, not always comfortable encounter. 
In pleasant weather, the colored people have an ice 
cream and hokey pokey stand of their own where a lusty 
black calls aloud for his customers to come and partake. 

Stores are well filled with purchasers. The well- 
to-do farmer’s wife and wage-earners are providing es- 
sentials for the Sunday dinner. Young girls are exam- 
ining the tempting array of dry-goods and feminine 
fixings. Babies lie asleep in their wicker coaches while 
the mother steps within the store to make a purchase. 
Ice cream saloons, candy, peanut and fruit stands are 
freely patronized. The stranger beholds these Satur- 
day night crowds with all their attendant succession of 
different things. Let him become a resident and he in- 
quires no more. He expects it; shares it. Soon post- 
pones to buy his own needful personal or household 
wants until Saturday night. Joins the crowd in the 
grocery, the meat shops or the fruit stand, makes his 
purchases, and instead of promptly pursuing his way to 
his home, stops to chat, as all the rest are doing, with 
the first acquaintance he meets. 

Ten o'clock arrives. One notices a slight diminu- 
tion in the crowd. Stores are gradually closing. The 
last customer must hurry or be too late. Eleven o’clock. 
‘The wagons begin to move. The sound of wheels, the 
click of the whip, the impatient horse, betoken a 


SALEM, NEW JERSEY 31 


coming departure (before the arrival of the automo- 
bile). The restaurants are still open. The smoky 
lights of the candy, peanut and fruit stands yet hold out 
their temptations. But not until the town clock strikes 
the midnight hour does one find ‘““The Corner”’ deserted, 
the lights all dead, the crowd departed. The same 
scene to be resumed on the next Saturday afternoon and 
night in Salem town. 


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